NASA shows off new algae farming technique for making biofuel

http://phys.org ^ | 04-16-2012 | Bob Yirka

[Red Badger]

NASA is clearly looking far into the future for a way to handle both human waste and a need for fuel on either long space flights or when attempting to colonize another planet. To that end, they’ve assigned life support engineer Jonathan Trent the task of coming up with a way to use algae to solve both problems at once. His solution is to use plastic bags floating in seawater as small bioreactors, containing wastewater, sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow algae that can be used as a means to create biofuel.

The whole thing is called Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae or more concisely, OMEGA, and will be demonstrated to reporters at one of San Francisco’s public utilities water pollution control plants tomorrow and is the culmination of $10 million worth of research.

The idea is more practical than revolutionary says Trent, who has spoken to reporters already about the project. The idea was to figure out a way to create an algae farm that could be placed close to a waste treatment facility, without taking up a bunch of land. That’s when he came up with idea of using plastic bags floating in the ocean. Conventional systems use large pools of water set up on dry land. In the test facility, each bag is four meters long and has been seeded with wastewater and carbon dioxide. Sunlight makes its way through the clear plastic as the bags float on seawater, which not only serves as a place for the bags to reside, but also help keep the algae cool, which must be done mechanically in other facilities. The algae eat the wastewater and grow until the bag is filled, at which point it is removed to be used for making biofuel.

Reports thus far show that algae farms set up in this manner would be capable of producing over two and a half million gallons of fuel annually in an area just under two square miles.

Trent says with a real farm, the carbon dioxide come could from nearby power plants, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the whole process. Not helping, on the other hand, is that the whole scheme is based on petroleum based plastic bags, which in addition to their inherent carbon footprint would also have to be disposed of once a year as they degrade in saltwater. Trent suggests that California farmer’s could use them as field cover instead of the large tarps they currently use. He also says that if one or more of the bags should break, like say in a storm, there is no worry as the algae would die in the seawater and the wastewater released would be the same as wastewater facilities such as those in San Francisco already pump into the bay.

At this point it seems clear that a new type of plastic will need to be developed for the project to become viable, especially if it is to be ported to space exploration applications at some point; perhaps one made from biodegradable material so that it could be grown along the way, and then could be used as fertilizer afterwards.

More information: Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) project: http://www.nasa.go … A/index.html

[Red Badger]

Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) is an innovative method to grow algae, clean wastewater, capture carbon dioxide and ultimately produce biofuel. Using treated sewage as a growth medium, OMEGA would not compete with agriculture for water, fertilizer or land. NASA’s OMEGA system consists of large flexible plastic tubes, called photobioreactors. Floating in seawater, the photobioreactors contain freshwater algae growing in wastewater. These algae are among the fastest growing plants on Earth.

Wastewater with oil-producing algae circulate through photobioreactors (green tubes) floating in a seawater tank at the San Francisco Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant, where NASA has set up one of its OMEGA research facilities.

Reports thus far show that algae farms set up in this manner would be capable of producing over two and a half million gallons of fuel annually in an area just under two square miles.

At that rate, we'll need to use the entire surface of all the oceans on earth just to break even.........

[MrB]

I heard they doubled the total fuel they produced from 50ml to 100ml.
/sarc

[Red Badger]

Biofuel ping!............

[SkyDancer]

Takes more energy to produce that stuff and it’s been proven it is a pollutant. Good grief! The US is awash in oil and we have to resort to this? At one time we were an oil exporting country. Didn’t the oil embargo of the Seventies during Carter show the need for developing our own resources? Every president since has done absolutely nothing. Now we have Obamalamadingdong.

[Busko]

This another scam that will come to pass. Start using our natural resources instead of this pie in the sky crap.

[Paine in the Neck]

At that rate, we'll need to use the entire surface of all the oceans on earth ...

Oh No! Where will we put the offshore windfarms?

[Lazamataz]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.

I remember when NASA looked to the heavens, and launched rockets to other celestial bodies.

Now they sit around a pond, poking at the scum with a stick.

[bigbob]

Well, as you know, most new technologies underperform at the outset, but get better over time. At least this is in the right general direction, algae is loaded with oil content but the trick is to find a way to grew and harvest it essentially for free, with close to zero input costs.

[Jonty30]

Just because the earth has had a few billion years to develop the fuel that’s in the ground, doesn’t mean that it’s cheaper. All we are doing is acting like we have a trust fund, in terms of how we use it.

At some point, even if that point is 500 years in the future, we will have to consider alternatives. I’d rather have 500 years of technology and knowledge behind us on how to develop those alternatives then wait until we need it and then start to consider them.

I do agree with you that it’s more pie in the sky at the moment, but that doesn’t mean it will always be so.

[MNDude]

to create oilgae:

1. You need the bottom of the pool sealed (like a swimming pool)
2. You need the top covered to prevent foreign plants from sprouting.
3. You need 350 gallons of water to create one gallon of oilgae.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

All of this pie in the sky alternative stuff would be a whole lot more impressive, if it weren’t pie in the sky stuff.

Offer it at the corner filling station, and you’ve got something.

Until then, it’s vaporware.

[SkyDancer]

I’d hate to have it come down to a panic thing. Those people who say no more oil don’t realize what other products come from oil. Out of a barrel of oil you get just two gallons of gasoline. Everything from oil is taken out and what’s left you pave roads with it. Maybe the technology isn’t around right now to produce super batteries for cars and trucks that allow them to go four hundred miles on a ten minute or less charge. But perhaps in the future there will be.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

And just how much taxpayer money will be flushed down this algae hole?...

[Nervous Tick]

>> each bag is four meters long and has been seeded with wastewater

The *newest* grad student on the team gets *that* job. :-)

[chimera]

So NASA has gone from doing this

To algae farts and Muslim Outreach. Anyone else out there think we've lost some ground here? Now I'm really depressed.

[TigersEye]

How many acres of algae pond per car will it take to fuel a car for a year?

[molson209]

only cost you $425.00 a gallon to fill up your car LOL

[BuffaloJack]

In the Photo, why are all those guys on the catwalk wearing UN helmets?

[Jonty30]

That’s my position. We should’t be propagandized into supporting technological development, but we shouldn’t be avoiding it either, just because there’s no real need for it.

[rightsmart]

By my calculations it would take an area of ocean roughly twice the size of the Great Lakes to make enough to cover U.S. Consumption.