Innovative research to produce Biodiesel from microalgae grown in wastewater

Rochester Institute of Technology, NewYork is initiating research for developing biodiesel from microalgae grown in wastewater. Algae are much simpler organisms that uses photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy. Only water—ponds or tanks are needed by Algae to grow in—sunlight and carbon dioxide. Algae—as a renewable feedstock—grow a lot quicker than crops of corn or soybeans. The advantages of Algae are, they are cheaper and faster to grow than corn, which requires nutrient-rich soil, fertilizer and insecticide. Cold weather is an issue for biodiesel fuels. One of the major drawback of biodiesel is that it does freeze at a higher temperature. It is fact that if any kind of diesel fuel gets too cold, it will be too much hard to start the engine, as at low temperature the diesel gels up. It’s possible to blend various types of biodiesel—algae derived with soybeans or some other type—to generate a biodiesel with a more favorable pour point that flows easily.
Considering the concepts and taking help of chemistry major Emily Young, isolated and extracted valuable fats, or lipids, algae produce and yielded tiny amounts of a golden-colored biodiesel. The researching group is growing the algae strain Scenedesmus, a single-cell organism, using wastewater from the Frank E. Van Lare wastewater Treatment Plant in Irondequoit, NewYork. The Algae will take out all the ammonia—99 percent—88 percent of the nitrate and 99 percent of the phosphate from the wastewater.

Professor Jeff Lodge, associate professor of biological sciences at RIT and Eric Lannan, who is working on his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at RIT ramped up their algae production from 30 gallons of wastewater in a lab at RIT to 100 gallons in a 4-foot-by-7-foot long tank at Environmental Energy Technologies. Professor Lodge and Eric Lannan’s research bridges the gap between cost efficiency and environmental conservation and is a perfect example of how old problems can yield to new and creative solutions. The researchers are planning to build a mobile greenhouse, in the spring, at the Irondequoit wastewater treatment plant and scale up production to as much as 1,000 gallons of wastewater. One of the biodesel firm, Northern Biodiesel, located in Wayne County, will purify the lipids from the algae and convert them into biodiesel for the RIT researchers.

Source at url http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48113

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