Algal Scientific Seeks Funds for Fertilizer-Eating Algae Project
Algal Scientific Corp., a U.S. developer of algal biomass for use in fertilizer and biofuels, said it’s seeking $3 million to help produce algae that remove pollutants from industrial sewage.
The Plymouth, Michigan-based company is raising $500,000 to complete demonstration plants and will seek the remaining funds in the next six to nine months, Chief Science Officer Geoff Horst said in a telephone interview. The plants will use algae to treat wastewater by soaking up pollutants including nitrogen and phosphorus, found in fertilizers.
Fresh-water contamination caused by high levels of those chemicals costs the U.S. about $4.3 billion a year, according to research by Kansas State University. The country’s Environmental Protection Agency is urging states to set targets for reducing the amount of fertilizer seeping into fresh water, requiring polluters to treat more of their sewage.
“We are focused primarily on cleaning up a customer’s wastewater,” Horst said on July 26. “The revenue generated from the biomass is really just gravy on top of that.”
Algal Scientific’s technology may help prevent so-called dead zones in rivers and lakes caused by excess chemical nutrients commonly found in fertilizers. Those nutrients feed water-based plants, squeezing out oxygen needed for fish to survive.
Current methods of removing nutrients from wastewater are complex and energy-intensive, Horst said. Removing phosphorus requires adding aluminum or iron chloride, while nitrogen must be converted to nitrates and then nitrogen gas to be released.
Algal Scientific’s system is at least 35 percent more efficient than a traditional sewage plant that uses air pumps, and can produce about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of biomass for every 260 gallons (1,000 liters) of treated waste, Horst said.
About 33 billion gallons of sewage is treated every day in the U.S., accounting for 3 percent of national energy use, according to the Water Environment Research Foundation.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Edwards in London at Bedwards35@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
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