NASA develops new way to cultivate algae

NASA has demonstrated a new way to grow algae, clean wastewater, capture CO₂ and then produce feedstock that can be used for biofuels production, without the need for water, fertiliser or land use.

The algae cultivation system has been dubbed the Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA) and will be release for commercial use in May 2012.

An OMEGA system on a smaller scale was built by NASA at the California Fish and Game laboratory in Santa Cruz, California, using seawater tanks. Following this, a larger 450 gallon system was put together at the Southeast Wastewater Treatment facility in San Francisco.
The system works by using photobioreactors which are flexible tubes that are put into sea water. Through the growing process, the algae consumes the nutrients and the CO₂ from the wastewater, effectively treating it.

The algae can double its size every day if the amount of sunlight, nutrients and water temperature is at the right level, meaning it can be harvested within three to five days.

As well as biofuels, the algae can also be used to make other products such as fertiliser, natural gas and animal feed.

‘We have continuous video of various prototypes of photobioreactors, day and night, over a six-month period. We see birds and sea otters interacting with the system, but it does not impact their well being,’ says Jonathan Trent, the project scientist of the OMEGA at NASA Ames. ‘Preliminary data showed that the interactions of these animals are not problematic to the system or its functions.’