Project eyes algae for biofuel

POTSDAM — Algae could, one day, save the Development Authority of the North Country money on its power bills.

The agency is teaming up with a group of researchers from Clarkson University to find out whether wastewater from its regional landfill could be used to grow algae, which then would be converted into biofuels.

The partnership is just in its infancy, and Clarkson biologists still are conducting small-scale experiments in the lab, so real results are still a way off, according to Susan E. Powers, associate director of Clarkson's Institute for a Sustainable Environment and one of the faculty members involved in the project.

"We currently transport that to the wastewater treatment facility, but as the landfill continues to grow, we're looking at alternatives to that," DANC Executive Director James W. Wright said. "Obviously, if there's an energy opportunity that we can tap into and use in house, that's also a good thing."

Using algae as a source of biofuel has caught on in recent years because, unlike corn-based fuels, algae does not require land that otherwise could be used to grow food for human or animal consumption.

The problem with algae, however, is that it requires lots of heat to keep it alive and to dry it out so it can be converted to an energy source.

The 79-acre landfill has its own generator, which creates electricity from biodegradable materials that are thrown away every day, including paper products and scraps of food. Creating that electricity also creates a great deal of heat, which is released. Clarkson researchers are proposing using that heat to grow the algae.

"We can get even more energy if we can capture that heat and use it," Ms. Powers said. "Our goal is to take all of their resources that they're not using adequately and use it to create energy."

The Clarkson team, which includes three students and two professors, received a $20,000 grant from DANC last year to do some preliminary studies.

The college also has applied for funding from an Environmental Protection Agency student research competition. If that application is successful, however, the college will not receive funding for preliminary analysis and design work from the government until the next academic year begins in the fall, according to Ms. Powers.

There are no estimates of how much energy could be created if the algae experiments are successful, nor how much money could be saved by converting to biofuels. However, Ms. Powers said it is unlikely there would be enough fuel created to switch over all of the equipment at the landfill to green energy.

"They have lots of heavy equipment on the landfill and between the trucks that come in and out and what's on site, the fuel would be accounted for," she said. "It wouldn't be all the trucks on the landfill, but it could help."