Idaho National Laboratory researcher finds new way to produce cyanobacteria

In Idaho, a researcher at Idaho National Laboratory has developed a way to grow blue-green algae – known as cyanobacteria – for bioenergy. The process could also help clean up water from wastewater treatment plants.

Blue-green algae blooms can clog waterways around the world, from estuaries in Florida to the Mississippi River Basin to lakes in China.

Their toxins can be harmful to humans and wildlife. These photosynthetic organisms thrive on human sources of nitrogen and phosphorus, including effluent from waste treatment plants and fertilizers that wash into watersheds from farms.

But this nutrient-loving algae also can serve as a feedstock for biofuels and power. Researchers say that the amount of oil from algae is 10 times that of palm oil and 131 times that of soybeans. Cyanobacteria have four times the energy productivity as algae under laboratory-scale conditions.