This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing commitment to solving Utah’s greatest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.
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When you think of algae, you probably think of the sticky green slime that closes popular recreational areas like Utah Lake. When a professor at Utah State University thinks about algae, the possibilities are endless.
Ron Sims leads a program at USU dedicated to growing algae in enclosed environments – especially in wastewater treatment plants – that purify water and can be harvested to make products like fertilizers, fuels, and even plastics.
“There was an old argument that if we have a good environment we can’t have an industry, and if we have an industry we won’t have an environment,” Sims said. “The new way is to build both. You protect the environment and build industry. We want to prove that. “
Algae grow naturally in Utah’s sewage treatment plants, and Sims really wants to encourage that. Algae can only get a few inches thick there before blocking sunlight for more plant growth. So Sims developed a barrel-shaped mechanism that rotates slowly to allow more algae to get sunlight.
“Instead of growing the algae in Utah Lake,” Sims said, “let’s grow them in an artificial environment where we can control and stimulate the growth and then get the algae out of there.”
Growing algae like this cleanses the wastewater of nutrients that are difficult to filter out, Sims said. The algae use nitrogen and phosphorus in the sewage system before they are harvested. The process removes those nutrients that would otherwise flow downstream and fertilize the toxic algae in Utah’s waterways.
Promotion of algae research
It’s not a crazy idea either. At least that is not what the US Department of Energy believes. USU and Sims received a $ 1.9 million grant from the department to continue this research.
The machine that grows the algae – the so-called Rotating Algal Biofilm Reactor or RABR – will be installed next month in the Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility in South Salt Lake with funds from the grant. Sixty million gallons of water – enough to fill about 9 Olympic swimming pools – pour into the facility every day, giving Sims and USU an opportunity to study how well the system works on a commercial scale.
USU researchers are developing ways of converting the algae into vehicle fuel or agricultural fertilizer. Some are also sent to Algix, a Mississippi-based biotechnology company developing ways to make plastic from algae.
USU is preparing a 3,000 square meter facility called the Algae Processing and Products Facility (APP) so that Sims and other researchers can study sustainable engineering with algae. The large footprint allows Sims and students to test whether practices developed on a small scale in a lab can work effectively for larger, real-world applications.
“When you scale [from a quart of water] up to 500 gallons you have a lot more engineering and sustainability challenges, ”said Sims. “You can’t just put a little stirrer in there and mix things. You have to figure out how to mix 500 gallons. “
Manufacture of organic products
Students will also develop ways to make diesel and other fuels from algae. Ordinary vehicles could use these algae-made fuels in the same way as other fuels, Sims said.
That algae-based diesel still emits air-polluting carbon, Sims said, but making diesel from algae that captured CO2 while growing would at least approach CO2 neutrality.
“With crude oil, where you pull it out of the ground and it’s never been there and then you burn it – that naturally contributes to our greenhouse gases,” said Sims. “But with this alga it already removes CO2 in the atmosphere.”
Algae are also being developed at USU to make fertilizers for agriculture, Sims said. Farmers use nitrogen and phosphorus to get better crop yields, but making this fertilizer is expensive and energy intensive.
The fertilizer made from algae, Sims said, could be less expensive and release the nutrients to the plants more slowly, which would also reduce the amount of excess nutrients that drain into the waterways and prevent toxic algal blooms.
One of the goals of the project is to change the mindset of wastewater treatment, Sims said. For him and his students, the nutrient-rich water that flows through sewage systems is an opportunity, not a problem.
“Wastewater is a resource for us. It contains valuable nutrients, ”said Sims. “We get the fertilizer for free, it is wastewater and our harvest turns into algae.”
Sims says that with this new algae plant, he and his students can help the environment and public health by reducing nutrients that feed toxic blue-green algae flowers while promoting sustainable jobs.
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Solutions in Practice
Would you like to do your part to prevent toxic algae blooms? Utah State University recommends the following:
• Shorten your lawn to 3 to 4 inches in length.
• Mulch your clippings. Bringing your grass back to the lawn can cut nitrogen fertilization needs by 50%.
• Use an inexpensive soil test to determine your actual fertilizer needs.
• Avoid midsummer fertilization and practice appropriate irrigation techniques that avoid runoff.
USU lawn care instructions: https://tinyurl.com/USUext.
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