What's New At U of A?

Making algae work for you:

You know algae - you've probably grown it inadvertently. It's a stream-clogging, pool-fouling aquatic plant that some scientists have spent careers trying to prevent.

But it has its good points. It removes the carbon from carbon dioxide. It thrives in wastewater and can even clean it up. It produces fatty lipids that can be easily turned into clean-burning biodiesel and other fuels. The leftover green mass can be fed to cattle or burned as fuel.

...The goal, said Michael Cusanovich, regents professor of biochemistry, is $3-a-gallon algae biofuel.

...Algae isn't tough to grow, she said, but it takes a lot of water to produce a small amount - a liter contains 2 to 3 grams, she said.

"Dewatering" those batches of algae using traditional methods such as a centrifuge is an energy-expensive process, Ogden said, and any process that uses a lot of energy to produce a fuel is self-defeating.

Solving the problem isn't just about solving that step. Rather than aim for one big breakthrough, the team wants to improve each step of the process and integrate all those steps, Ogden said.

...Cusanovich, who is concentrating on developing the most productive strain of algae, said his goal is 50 percent lipids - the fats that produce a clean-burning biofuel.

Then, especially in the water-starved Southwest, you need to find ways to cut down on the use of water.

One of algae's attributes is that it thrives in nonpotable water. Cusanovich is among several researchers using partly treated wastewater to grow his varieties of algae.

Joel Cuello, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, grows algae in a photo-bioreactor he developed and patented at the research greenhouses on Campbell Avenue. He said Southern Arizona is a great place to grow algae with that one exception. "We have a lot of sunlight and land, but not a lot of water," he said.

Sewage that hasn't been totally treated for waste is one solution. "We consider it waste, but from the point of view of the algae - it's nutrients," he said.

Another of algae's alluring attributes is its ability to capture carbon. It grows better in a CO2-enriched atmosphere, which is why carbon dioxide is bubbling through beakers of green liquid all over campus these days.

One thought is to locate algae farms next to power plants. The Department of Energy recently awarded a $70.5 million grant to Arizona Public Service to do just that at its coal-fired Cholla Power Plant near Holbrook.