This Trip Brought to You by Scum and Sewage
Can Algae + Sewage = Biofuel?
NASA thinks so.
The agency is using their space technology here on earth with an experiment that has a dual mission – producing algae-based fuel and cleansing wastewater.
Here’s how it works. Sewage and algae is combined in NASA created OMEGA (Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae) bags and floated in the sea. The versatile OMEGA bags, originally created by NASA to recycle astronaut’s wastewater on long space missions, let the freshwater out and stop the seawater from getting in.
Meanwhile, the algae feed off the nutrients in the sewage, which in turn cleans up the water and produces fat-soluble lipids that can be used as biofuel and fertilizer.
There are a few technology hiccups to deal with, the biggest being trying to find a plastic strong enough to endure pounding waves and freezing temperatures without becoming too brittle for osmosis.
But once that’s accomplished, NASA researchers envisage the OMEGA’s eventually producing enough fuel for U.S. aviation needs which currently runs at 21 billion gallons a year.
Image: TheOtherJohn C
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1 Comment
May 15th, 2009 at 10:12 am
The exciting thing about this is that it doesn’t require using valuable land, which can cause food shortages and exacerbate deforestation.
I’d also be keen to know if the algae can sequester carbon in the process. Carbon emissions absorbed by the sea are not directly contributing to global warming because they’re not in the atmosphere, but it’s causing acidification of the ocean and that’s bad for marine life.
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