Planting Algae with Wastewater and CO2 - NASA Develops New Method for Biofuel Production

Planting Algae with Wastewater and CO2 - NASA Develops New Method for Biofuel Production

NASA is working hard to find a way to deal with human waste while satisfying fuel needs when it comes to long-term space flight in the future or when it tries to emigrate to other planets. According to the report of the Physicist Organization Network on April 16, for this purpose, NASA floats plastic pipes in sea water as a small bioreactor, and uses its wastewater and carbon dioxide in combination with sunlight to grow algae that can produce biofuels. The $10 million research system, known as the OMEGA, was opened on April 17 at a sewage treatment plant in southeast San Francisco.

Jonathan Trent, the project leader and life support engineer, said that OMEGA is using an innovative method to grow algae, clean waste water, capture carbon dioxide, and ultimately produce biofuels. This system uses sewage as a growth medium for algae and does not compete with agriculture for fresh water, grabbing fertilizer, or occupying land. OMEGA consists of a large flexible plastic tube that floats on the sea. These plastic tubes, called photobioreactors, house freshwater algae that can grow in wastewater, and these algae are one of the fastest growing plants on Earth.

Trent said that this idea is very practical. The original idea was to create an algal farm that resembles a waste treatment facility and does not occupy land. Now it has evolved into the idea of ​​using plastic pipes floating on the sea. This is different from the traditional system of building huge pools on land. In the experiment, they sow in the waste water and carbon dioxide in a tubular bag with a length of about 4 meters; transparent plastic packaging tubes floating on the sea allow sunlight to shine in; seawater can not only be used as the place where these plastic pipes are placed, but also It helps cool the algae; the algae “eat” the wastewater and grow until the tubes are filled, at which time the algae can be removed from it for the production of biofuels.

The report to date shows that building algae farms in this way will produce more than 2.5 million gallons of fuel per year in less than two square miles of area. Trent said that due to the current use of petroleum-based plastic pipes, one day it will degrade in seawater to increase its inherent carbon footprint, so to build such a real farm, carbon dioxide can be obtained from nearby power plants, which helps Reduce the carbon footprint of the entire process. He also stated that if one or more pipes break during a storm, there is no fear that the algae will die in the sea, and the discharged wastewater will be pumped into the bay by the sewage treatment facility.

Obviously, new plastics have yet to be developed to make this project more feasible, especially in the future application of the system to space exploration. It may be possible to make plastic pipes from biodegradable materials so that they can eventually be used as fertilizers. (Hua Ling)

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