Impact/Purpose:

The purpose of this project is to address the sustainable production of green energy and waste mitigation through the design and construction of a working eco-energy demonstration model based on the integration of anaerobic digestion and photosysthesis.

Description:

For the project, we:

1. Designed and constructed an ecological energy model system.
2. Investigated and characterized locally abundant agricultural and domestic waste resources that can have significant environmental impacts (dairy manure, poultry manure, sewage, food waste, and landfill leachate).
3. Developed a functional anaerobic digestion ecology and discovered important lessons of digestion biology.
4. Explored local phycological diversity.
5. Explored importance of solar energy in the Eco-Energy model.
6. Learned microscopy skills to probe wastes for indigenous methanogens and algae for lipids.
7. Evaluated harvesting techniques and biomass production potentials of promising species of algae.
8. Cultivated benthic algae and experimented with the potential for waste remediation.
9. Demonstrated the Eco-Energy concept and model to local students, teachers, professors, and researchers.

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Project Information:

Eco-Energy is a concept that actively integrates biological systems to create energy in resource-efficient, closed-loop ecologies capable of simultaneously mitigating pollutants and producing energy. Phase 1 of our project delves into the design and basic scientific understanding of the aspects that make our eco-energy system effective. The main components, the methanogenic anaerobic digester and the algal photo-bioreactor, present technical challenges that must be understood for successful technology integration. These inquiries include the varied parameters of both anaerobic and photosynthetic ecologies. Our project will investigate the basic biological structure and function of attached aquatic algal communities and their potential productivity using anaerobic digester effluent as a primary source of mineral nutrients. Our investigation will characterize digester effluent from different feedstocks (e.g. sewage, manures, food wastes) to determine if these reflect a difference in algal growth. Understanding the basic environmental parameters that promote climax communities of algae will allow steady-state productivity and an enhanced degree of culture stability. A further challenge to the utilization of algae as a primary source of energy is the ability to harvest the algae. Current methods in algal culturing are energy intensive, and therefore economically and sustainably prohibitive. Our model, once constructed, will allow our team to investigate methods of passive, low-tech algal harvesting. The entire model will operate on waste nutrients and sunlight, incorporating photovoltaic solar cells to run water pumps.

Eco-Energy is a concept that actively integrates biological systems to create energy in resource-efficient, closed-loop ecologies capable of simultaneously mitigating pollutants and producing energy. Phase 1 of our project delves into the design and basic scientific understanding of the aspects that make our eco-energy system effective. The main components, the methanogenic anaerobic digester and the algal photo-bioreactor, present technical challenges that must be understood for successful technology integration. These inquiries include the varied parameters of both anaerobic and photosynthetic ecologies. Our project will investigate the basic biological structure and function of attached aquatic algal communities and their potential productivity using anaerobic digester effluent as a primary source of mineral nutrients. Our investigation will characterize digester effluent from different feedstocks (e.g. sewage, manures, food wastes) to determine if these reflect a difference in algal growth. Understanding the basic environmental parameters that promote climax communities of algae will allow steady-state productivity and an enhanced degree of culture stability. A further challenge to the utilization of algae as a primary source of energy is the ability to harvest the algae. Current methods in algal culturing are energy intensive, and therefore economically and sustainably prohibitive. Our model, once constructed, will allow our team to investigate methods of passive, low-tech algal harvesting. The entire model will operate on waste nutrients and sunlight, incorporating photovoltaic solar cells to run water pumps.

Eco-Energy is a concept that actively integrates biological systems to create energy in resource-efficient, closed-loop ecologies capable of simultaneously mitigating pollutants and producing energy. Phase 1 of our project delves into the design and basic scientific understanding of the aspects that make our eco-energy system effective. The main components, the methanogenic anaerobic digester and the algal photo-bioreactor, present technical challenges that must be understood for successful technology integration. These inquiries include the varied parameters of both anaerobic and photosynthetic ecologies. Our project will investigate the basic biological structure and function of attached aquatic algal communities and their potential productivity using anaerobic digester effluent as a primary source of mineral nutrients. Our investigation will characterize digester effluent from different feedstocks (e.g. sewage, manures, food wastes) to determine if these reflect a difference in algal growth. Understanding the basic environmental parameters that promote climax communities of algae will allow steady-state productivity and an enhanced degree of culture stability. A further challenge to the utilization of algae as a primary source of energy is the ability to harvest the algae. Current methods in algal culturing are energy intensive, and therefore economically and sustainably prohibitive. Our model, once constructed, will allow our team to investigate methods of passive, low-tech algal harvesting. The entire model will operate on waste nutrients and sunlight, incorporating photovoltaic solar cells to run water pumps.

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