News

Energy Dynamics Lab researches algae as biofuel

By Ranae Bangerter
Vernal Express
October 11, 2011

RANAE BANGERTER, VERNAL EXPRESS
A circular “floating pond” rests above a one acre pond east of the Utah State University Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center. Researchers hope to grow algae in the pond as an alternative form of biofuel.

What looked like a crop circle in an acre of farmland next to Utah State University’s Vernal campus is now a “floating pond,” in a body of water east of the Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center, and is set to grow algae for biofuel production.

The “floating pond,” made of high-density polyethylene — a material similar to garbage bags, was assembled by a research team in about seven weeks, and is hoped to be the new home of thousands of gallons of microalgae.

“Algae grows exponentially,” said Curtis Carrigan, Energy Dynamics Laboratory researcher with the Algae Energy systems Demonstration Pond. “It can double per-day under the right conditions.”

The goal is to grow enough algae per acre to produce one barrel of biofuel per day, the 28-year-old researcher from Logan said.

All the pond needs for algae to bloom is four ingredients: the sun, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and phosphorus.

“It’s low maintenance; that’s the hope,” Carrigan said.

Funding for the project came from the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative and the U.S. Department of Energy. An additional grant was awarded from the Impact Mitigation Special Service District, because the plant absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and also uses nitrogen and phosphorus from the run-off water, said Kevin Shurtleff, lead researcher for Algae Energy Systems with EDL.

“We’re really (in Vernal) to demonstrate that we can capture CO2 from the air and we can clean up nitrogen and phosphorus from the water and at the same time create an additional energy source,” Shurtleff said. “The Uintah Basin is really the center of energy production in the state of Utah and we thought that’s why it would be a good place we could capture CO2, clean the air and produce additional energy.”

The “floating pond” is only six inches deep for a reason, the group has to add costly nutrients to the pond for the algae to grow.

For now, the research team will be adding fertilizers — nitrogen and phosphorus — into the water because those elements are lacking in this particular pond.

Ideally, the plan is to place thousands of the one-acre ponds into waters that are naturally full of nitrogen and phosphorus, and in areas near carbon dioxide.

This is the first one-acre “floating algae pond” ever constructed, and it took some careful planning and building.

“We had the idea of how we wanted to assemble it,” Carrigan said, adding that it was difficult to find a parking lot — or flat surface — with an unobstructed one-acre area.

The group then ended up constructing the “floating pond” in a cow field behind the Bingham Center.

The project that was expected to take only two to three weeks ended up taking seven, and that pushed the project behind schedule. Four large sections of the “floating pond” had to be carefully glued and welded together and then transported to the nearby pond.

“It’s been kind of a big deal,” Carrigan said.

A second one-acre “floating pond” is being built, with some modifications after design problems and delays in the construction of the first one.

The “floating pond” will be in Vernal for a month as researchers see if it produces enough algae, then it will be taken to a milder climate in southern Utah for the winter and brought back to Vernal in the spring.

“The goal is to grow as much as we can, to demonstrate what we can accomplish in the month we have, and then stop for the winter,” Carrigan said.

Positive results from the project all depend on the weather, Shurtleff said.

“The goal was to deploy the pond earlier so that we’d have a longer growth season,” he said.

The most difficult part of the process will be harvesting the microalgae, Carrigan said.

Harvesting takes careful research because of the different strains of algae and there’s no right way to harvest microalgae. Some strains float, some sink and some swim around, he said.

Carrigan compared it to catching different insects.

“If it’s a butterfly, you use a butterfly net, if it’s a cockroach you use a paper cup,” he said. “So it’s different.”

He said ideally they’d like to have the algae sink to the bottom of the “floating pond” and then use something similar to a swimming pool vacuum which runs along the bottom of the pool to harvest it.

As for biofuel production long-term goals, researchers hope the “floating ponds” will produce 1,300 gallons of biofuel per-acre, per-year, on the low end; and on the high-end 5,000 gallons per-acre, per-year.

That compares with palm oil that produces about 600 gallons per-acre, per-year, Carrigan said.

“It’s twice as good as anything so far,” he said, “but it’s almost 30 times as good as any other crop that we have a chance at growing.”

Additional researchers for the EDL project include Matthew Bush, 31, of Vernal and Devin Bascom, 24, of Orem.