Can you make algae biofuel in cool, cloudy Western Washington?

GOOD LUCK with your project, but fresh water species require ... fresh water, and place demands on a limited resource, marine or brackish water tolerant species take very, very little fresh water (just enough to avoid excess salinity from evaporation) You have a whole ocean next door, use it. The world is facing a fresh water crisis, and while growing temperate zone (relatively low light) species if GREAT, your work will find wider acceptance with marine species. Diatoms have "hard shells" (mostly silicon or carbonate) but lots and lots of algae do not, and few if any of the cyanobacteria are more than single membrane cells easily broken open by a half dozen low energy methods Sincerely, Stafford "Doc" Williamson .

Jul 10, 20140

Chloe DeodatoResearcher

Mr. Williamson, Thank you for your comment and concerns about our project. We may be surrounded by salt water, but Seattle is a large city with a lot of processed freshwater effluent being released into the marine Puget Sound daily. This nutrient-rich effluent is a potential cause of several types of harmful algal blooms (aka. red tides) in the ocean and Puget Sound that kill finfish (salmon) and shellfish (oysters, mussels), as well as halt fertilization and embryonic development of sea urchins. These are major industries in the Pacific Northwest and sustain considerable damage every summer during the harmful algal bloom season. Red tides also affect human beings, ie. paralytic shellfish poisoning and others. Many beaches are closed to recreational shellfish harvesting every year when the toxin concentration is high in shellfish tissues. Dr. Rose Ann Cattolico has been studying algae for over 40 years and our lab has an extensive algae culture collection of marine and freshwater species. There are many potential candidates in this collection, including freshwater, marine and brackish water species. Most cyanobacteria and green algae do not naturally make oils as photosynthetic products, but our brown algae do and in high quantities. This particular freshwater species is halo-tolerant and is considered by scientists in the industry to be an excellent candidate for an algal standard by which to measure lipid production of other strains for the algae biofuel industry and a model system to study algal lipid biogenesis. We not only want to make biofuel and bioproducts using our freshwater algae, but also bioremediate the nutrient-rich freshwater effluent before it is released into Puget Sound. Therefore, we will create local, sustainable energy and co-products and lessen damaging effects on the marine environment that surrounds us. We want to show that making local biofuel, instead of relying upon fuel produced in other regions of the US, is a viable option here in Seattle and other temperate regions of the world. Please join us in our quest to change the views of the current algae biofuel industry! Sincerely, Chloe Deodato

Jul 10, 20140