St. Paul Wastewater Plant to Grow Algae for Biomass
Officials in St. Paul, Minnesota believe a pilot project to grow algae at the city’s wastewater plant will clean the water before it’s pumped back into the Mississippi River and provide biomass for biofuels.
Biomass Magazine reports the process will also take nitrogen and phosphorus out of the water that can be used to make fertilizer:
A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota partnered with the Metropolitan Council for the project, using centrate—liquid waste separated from the solids—to grow several species of algae that can thrive in wastewater. The project started in 2006 on a much smaller scale, using wastewater in labs, and recently moved to Met Council’s treatment plant.
“It’s an opportunity to grow algae on a larger scale in colder climates,” said Todd Reubold, director of communications for the Institute on the Environment. “Rather than flushing all these nutrients, we’re recycling them.”
Heavy research and experimenting went into choosing the strains, and the discovery that centrate is the optimal element. “After screening all kinds of algae, we found types that can grow in concentrated wastewater without any additional nutrients,” said Roger Ruan, professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the university, and director of the Center for Biorefining.
Using a wastewater plant to grow the algae saves a significant amount in capital and energy, said Rod Larkins, associate director of IREE. “You have to fertilize algae, but in our case, the fertilizer is already there,” he said. “You save significant money by not having to add nutrients to the algae.” The necessary high volume of water and heat are available, also.
The project will use an enclosed photobioreactor that allows the algae to grow in a smaller area. Officials believe they could produce daily 1,000 to 4,000 gallons of oil to turn into biodiesel.
2 Comments »
bala
sir could u please guidance on how to grow a algae and just test the parameters of wastee water before and after the introduction of algae and how to monitor the process ,,
Bob Collins
To the Editor of this article,
I am an academic working in The School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin University, Warrnambool Western Victoria, Australia. My main area of work has been in pond and especially RAS aquaculture. This year I have been seconded to work for our local water board (Wannon Water) to investigate the feasibility of using Aquaculture as a means of removing nutrients (N&P) from sewage effluent and along with classical fish based strategies algal biomass production is high on the agenda for evaluation. We have 17 sewage plants to evaluatle and as we also live in a temperate environment I would be very interested to make contact with people from the St Paul City Council and University of Minnesota in regard to the algal biomass project outlined above.
Best regards,
Bob Collins
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