Environment

Researcher looks into wastewater zooplankton as biofuel feedstock

Stefanie Kring studies zooplankton gathered from wastewater lagoons
Stefanie Kring studies zooplankton gathered from wastewater lagoons

With dwindling non-renewable fuel sources creating an enormous energy challenge, the search is on to develop sustainable, renewable types of energy such as solar, wind and biofuel. One of the recent developments in this field comes from New York's Clarkson University, where new findings suggest that small organisms found in wastewater treatment lagoons could be used as biofuel feedstock.

The research was carried out by PhD student Stefanie Kring, who examined sunlit lagoons in Canton, New York during the summer. She found them to be rich in zooplankton, also found in other water bodies such as lakes and rivers, although algae was conspicuously absent.

Its absence was due to the fact that the plankton fed on algae, and had no predators in the lagoons, leading to their high concentration. These small organisms could be useful in the making of biofuel because when they feed, they accumulate oil in their bodies, and it's easier to extract that oil from them than it is from algae.

Besides biofuel, the study suggests that protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids could be harvested from zooplankton biomass. For that, lagoons would need to be redesigned to perform tasks other than wastewater treatment.

Further lifecycle and economic assessments are needed to determine the feasibility of harvesting zooplankton, but there is potential. “These zooplankton grow fast, they select algae from among all of the other particles present in the water, " said Kring. "Collecting zooplankton from water is much easier than collecting microscopic algae, due to their larger size."

Details of the research recently appeared in the journal Environmental Technology.

Source: Clarkson University

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3 comments
watersworm
It seems far more smart and clever than "cultivating" algae ! Let's hope a relatively quick and sharp result for further implementation
StWils
It many respects it does not especially matter what the end product is, biofuel, plastic feed stocks, etc., what matters most is processing waste from municipal sewage systems or from agricultural production. Historically, these "sewage processing" requires a vivid imagination to imagine that this stuff is not just dried & dumped. Growing and extracting anything of value is an important step forward.
Jim Sadler
There have been a lot of schemes for making use of both human and animal waste products. So far very little has come of it all. Hog farmers could take great joy in being able to better deal with hog waste and the lagoons that they now use as could the chicken and egg industries. And if we consider the human waste issues such work is invaluable.