Wastewater isn’t really good for anything. After all, it’s wastewater. But if you grow algae on it, that’s a different story.
A team of researchers has developed a way to create biofuel from that algae, which has the added benefit of removing harmful pathogens from the water as it converts to fuel. According to the team, the process removes all of the ammonia from the water, 99 percent of the phosphate, and 88 percent of the nitrate in less than a week.
It turns out that the algae is a better option than other types biofuels for several reasons.
“Algae–as a renewable feedstock–grow a lot quicker than crops of corn or soybeans,” researcher Eric Lannan explained. “We can start a new batch of algae about every seven days. It’s a more continuous source that could offset 50 percent of our total gas use for equipment that uses diesel.”
Via Wired
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