Integrated biofuels production and waste bioremediation system

The long term goal of this research is to develop a program that integrates biofuels and biomaterials production, animal waste treatment, and CO2 bioremediation together into an enclosed system. The general idea is shown in the figure below. Wastes from dairy or feedlot are fed into an anaerobic digester to produce methane and CO2. CO2 is bubbled into algae PBR system along with the input of liquid manure and lagoon water as the medium. Algae is harvested and oil is extracted. The starch or fiber part of algae can be fermented to ethanol. Ethanol reacts with algae oil to make biodiesel and glycerol. CO2 from fermentation is also re-circulated back to the algae PBR system. The algae solid that can not be used is fed into the anaerobic digester. In this enclosed and integrated system, biogas, ethanol, biodiesel, glycerol, clean water, and fertilizer can all be output, and nothing is wasted.

For the 10-week REU research, two projects will be conducted focusing on the two major components of the research described above: anaerobic digestion and algae culture. The two projects will be connected together, and two students are expected to work together and share research ideas and results.

Project #1: Animal waste anaerobic digestion

Project description: Giant livestock farms also known as feedlots that house thousands of cows, chickens or pigs - produce staggering amounts of animal wastes each year in Kansas. Such wastes are usually funneled into massive waste lagoons. These cesspools often break, leak or overflow, sending dangerous microbes, nitrate pollution and drug-resistant bacteria into water supplies. Factory-farm lagoons also emit toxic gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane. What's more, the farms often spray the manure onto land, ostensibly as fertilizer - these "sprayfields" bring still more of these harmful substances into our air and water, which consequently seriously pollutes the natural environment and threatens public health of Kansas. Anaerobic digestion is a proven technology that can significantly reduce environmental risks associated with animal waste treatment, and produce useable energy at the same time. Student activities: A student is responsible for designing and building a small anaerobic digester, testing it with various wastes, and analyzing nutrient uptake. The project will include both experimental work as well as an energetic analysis using available electron concepts to evaluate the energy content of animal wastes and other wastes (such as food wastes) that might be added to the animal waste. Mass balances and measurements will be used to estimate the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus that flow to the algae reactor of the second project. The effluent will be sent to the second project. People involved: Dr. Larry Erickson, Chemical Engineering Dr. Wenqiao Yuan, Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Project #2: Growing algae in treated animal waste effluent

Project description: It is well known that the increased amounts of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, from factory farms, can cause algal blooms when they are released into creeks, rivers, or lakes. This can kill fish and other aquatic organisms, devastating the entire aquatic food chain. However, this inspires the idea of using animal wastewater to purposefully grow algae in a controlled condition. Unlike other oil crops, algae can be grown in the desert or on marginal lands, and therefore, will not compete for arable lands currently used for human food and animal feed production. Algae can also grow in salty water, so competition for valuable fresh water can be avoided. Along with their CO2 biofixation potential and wastewater treatment benefits, algae have been regarded as the only potential source of biodiesel to completely replace fossil diesel and the most promising renewable energy. Student activities: A student is responsible for growing algae using diluted effluents from an anaerobic digester, monitoring algae growth under various loadings of animal waste. The project will investigate the ability of the algae to grow where the nitrogen and phosphorus are provided by treated animal waste effluent from an anaerobic digester. The impact of carbon dioxide concentration in the gas phase will be investigated as well to determine if anaerobic digestion or ethanol fermentation gases are better than air. The bioenergetics and economics of algae production will be investigated as well. Potential applications of the biomass produced will be developed. People involved: Dr. Wenqiao (Wayne) Yuan, Biological and Agricultural Engineering Dr. Larry Erickson, Chemical Engineering Ms. Ying Shen, Ph.D. student, Biological and Agricultural Engineering