A researcher at the University of Kansas has figured out a way to grow algae for biodiesel in wastewater with the secondary benefit of cleaning the water prior to its release into the nearby Kansas River.
Liquid wastewater is discharged on a constant basis by cities and towns the world over, coming from any residential, commercial, and industrial sources utilizing fresh water. Depending on its use further upstream, the water can be made up of a wide assortment of contaminants such as feces, cooking oils, chemicals, or highway rain runoff. In most places, wastewater is treated at an expensive water treatment plant before being released into the wild, reducing or eliminating many of its pollutants. Assistant professor Belinda Sturm at the University of Kansas saw a use for the oft-nutrient rich wastewater and she has been growing algae in it to manufacture biodiesel fuel with.
Sturm is utilizing the post-treatment nitrogen and phosphorus-filled wastewater coming from the city of Lawrence to grow the algae, which she then mixes into a slurry and processes to capture the oily lipids used in biodiesel. In addition to making the oils needed for the fuel, the process helps to further reduce wastewater contaminants prior to it being discharged into the river. In talking to the DodgeGlobe, KU engineering professor Dennis Lane stated that this approach could help communities comply with federal environmental regulations for dealing with wastewater.
Due to her research, Sturm recently won the Excellence in Environmental Engineering Award from the Academy of Environmental Engineers for her work. If every community was able to reuse wastewater to make biodiesel from, we could not only produce a lot of fuel but also reduce the use of freshwater to do so. Let’s hope her research pays off and we can start building algae plants right alongside our wastewater treatment facilities.
[via DodgeGlobe]
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