RIT Partners with Synergy Biogas on Algae Project
(Algae Industry Magazine) Rochester Institute of Technology and Synergy Biogas are exploring the environmental benefits of microalgae to clean agricultural wastewater and make biofuels. Jeff Lodge, associate professor in RIT’s Thomas Gosnell School of Life Sciences, is running the three-month pilot program at Synergy Biogas – a high-tech anaerobic digester located on Synergy Farms in Covington, N.Y – to grow microalgae on digested biomass. The microalgae will consume contaminants in wastewater and produce an algal biomass that Dr. Lodge will use as a feedstock for renewable energy.
Dr. Lodge will grow the microalgae in a 1,000-gallon tank at Synergy in a process that can be scaled up to treat 52,000 gallons, or 200,000 liters, of wastewater a day. The trial project will demonstrate the organisms’ ability to consume ammonia, phosphorous and nitrogen from digested biomass and reduce contaminants below state-mandated levels.
Dr. Lodge’s laboratory experiments with microalgae have reduced phosphorous in wastewater by greater than 90 percent, to levels of 0.1 part per million, for exceeding the maximum allowable 1 part per million in New York. READ MORE and MORE (Rochester Institute of Technology) and MORE (Biodiesel Magazine)
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