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Georgia Tech Students Study Biodiesel Production Using Algae

IN THIS ISSUE Gaining New Ground on Biodiesel Conversion Efficiency The Economics of Biofuels Georgia Tech Students Study Biodiesel Production Using Algae High School Student Produces Homemade Biodiesel Using Restaurant Fryer Oil Defining Strategies to Control Storm Water Runoff from Poultry Processing Facilities Researchers Develop Process to Recover Eggshell Waste for Alternative Uses A Look at the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard and Its Impact on Poultry Processors and Growers Changing Environmental and Energy Climate Creates New Opportunities for Electric Boilers and Water Heaters Bringing the Research Lab to the Classroom

This past spring, Caroline McDougald and a group of classmates in the Georgia Tech School of Industrial and Systems Engineering spent a week in the Food Processing Technology Division’s Environmental Lab testing whether or not biodiesel could be made using algae as the feedstock. As part of an Energy Technology and Policy course requirement, McDougald and the others had to complete a research project on alternative energy sources.

“We chose to study making biodiesel from algae because a team member’s uncle had done some work with the topic in Columbia,” says McDougald. “Rather than simply writing about other people’s research, we decided to try our own experiments and write about them.”

With their topic chosen, the student researchers set out to find assistance on campus. Their first stop was the School of Biology to solicit samples of algae. The school was generous enough to supply them with a 5-gram sample of diatomic algae. The students then located environmental engineers in Georgia Tech’s Food Processing Technology Division (FPTD) who were working in the biodiesel area.

McDougald contacted John Pierson, a principal research engineer and leader of FPTD’s Food Safety, Environment, and Energy Technology group. Pierson met with the student researchers and determined that many of the standard methods he used for ongoing biofuels research could benefit the students’ learning.

So, Pierson and fellow group member, Robert Wallace, a chemist, worked with the students in FPTD’s Environmental Lab to extract oil from the algae in order to process it into biodiesel. They used a solvent extraction to separate the oil from the other material present and proceeded to produce a biofuel material using an acid-catalyzed reaction. In the end, the team confirmed that a small amount of algae produced a small amount of biodiesel as was expected.

McDougald says the research project was her first hands-on experience working with biodiesel, and it definitely peaked her interest in the alternative fuel source. “Although producing biodiesel from algae might not be the most cost-effective or efficient way to go about it, I am very interested in making biodiesel for personal use.”

“John and Robert also introduced us to their research with waste oil and byproducts from wastewater treatment sites, and I am very intrigued by the whole process. I think that if more people knew how simple and inexpensive a process it is to convert refined oil into biodiesel, it would be much more mainstream,” adds McDougald.

“This was an excellent proof of concept exercise,” says Wallace. “We were delighted to be able to assist the students in gaining knowledge of feedstock options for biodiesel production.”