BASIC Associates: Algal Products from Carpet Wastewater May Reduce Costs, Increase Revenues

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Algal Products from Carpet Wastewater May Reduce Costs, Increase Revenues

By Daniela Sciaky, Ph.D.

Algae have been touted as feedstocks for biofuel production based on their potential to produce massive quantities of oil. However algae have a high demand for water, as high as 11 to 13 million liters per hectare when cultivated in open ponds. Another promise of algae is their use for the bioremediation of wastewater or water that has been contaminated with animal waste, industrial waste or other sources. Cultivation of algae on just 50% of non-agriculturally consumed water could potentially produce about 250 million tons of algal biomass that could be used to produce 37 million tons of oil. The wastewater, after algal cultivation, is also rendered clean enough for other uses including use by the agricultural industry.

A recently published patent application, US 20100267122 as well as several other publications from scientists associated with The University of Georgia Biorefining and Carbon Cycling Program, demonstrate the cultivation of mixed algal populations on wastewater containing carpet mill effluents and municipal sewage. Consortia of native algal species isolated from carpet wastewater are capable of removing over 96% of the nutrients found in treated wastewater. Lipid content of the algal consortium amounts to 6.82% and the biomass produced approaches 9.2–17.8 tons per hectare per year. About 63.9% of the oil from these algal populations can be used to produce biodiesel, while the algal biomass can be used to produce biomethane. More studies are still needed to bring down the costs of biofuel production using this system.

The implications of these studies to the US carpet industry are enormous since this industry must meet stringent wastewater quality discharge regulations. The carpet industry in Dalton, Georgia generates 100–115 million liters of wastewater per day and is highly motivated to reduce the costs of waste management. The discharge, when viewed as a resource, may help to not only reduce costs but to produce another source of income for the industry.

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About BASIC

Unlike other investor services, BASIC Associates focuses not on the financials, but on the science behind various R&D initiatives in bioproducts. Sound science, after all, is the ultimate driver of profitability in the industry. We believe that a superior understanding of the science behind the business model reduces uncertainty and risk and allows for better decision-making by investors and stakeholders.

The principals at BASIC Associates use their doctoral training, coupled with years of experience researching and writing about biofuels, biochemicals, and other bioproducts, to provide an accessible science-oriented analysis of companies and projects in this growing market.

Meet the Principals

Robin J. Johnson, Ph.D.

Dr. Johnson is a cofounder of BASIC Associates. She previously worked as a curator for Garbrook Knowledge Resources, which she joined in March of 2007. Prior to joining Garbrook, she was a Scientist at Genstruct, a systems biology company that creates computer models of biological pathways, and a curator/editor at Incyte and later Biobase, working on the Proteome BiKnowledge Library. (Proteome was a successful knowledge company that provided comprehensive annotation of the proteomes of a variety of organisms, including humans.) As an assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine from 1985-2003, Dr. Johnson taught Medical School and did research in the field of cellular neurobiology. She has numerous publications to her credit. Dr. Johnson received her B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her Ph.D. in Anatomy from Boston University. Her postdoctoral studies of viral infection in the nervous system were performed at Yale University School of Medicine Section of Cell Biology.

Daniela Sciaky, Ph.D.

Dr. Sciaky, a cofounder of BASIC Associates, is a scientific expert in plant biotechnology and biofuels and bioproduct processes. From 2006 to 2010, she was the senior content expert at Garbrook Knowledge Resources, where she contributed her expertise to the gathering and organization of biofuels and bioproduct information. From 1998 to 2006, she curated the scientific literature on a wide variety of topics, including plant and yeast molecular biology, helping to develop content for the Proteome databases. She has also held research positions with Children's Hospital of Cincinnati and Albany Medical College and faculty and research positions at the University of Cincinnati and Brookhaven National Laboratory. During the course of her career, Dr. Sciaky has served as a peer reviewer for the US Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the US Department of Energy, in addition to reviewing papers for the The Plant Cell, Biochemistry, Planta, Nucleic Acids Research, Plasmid, Bio/Technology and BioScience journals.

Dr. Sciaky received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Genetics from Washington State University and her B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She did post-doctoral research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY. She has presented at numerous scientific conferences and is well published in plant disease and natural systems as well as other fields.

Henrique Oliveira, MBA

Henrique, a cofounder of BASIC Associates, worked as a curator for Garbrook Knowledge Resources from 2008 to 2010. A citizen of both Brazil and the United States, he received his MBA in Finance in 2008 from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was awarded a fellowship by the University’s William Davidson Institute to conduct research on Brazil’s 35-year experience with biofuels. As a Fellow of the Institute, Henrique spent several months in 2007 touring biofuel facilities in Brazil with Tom MacDonald, a senior researcher with the California Energy Commission and the head of MacDonald Associates, a boutique consulting firm specializing in alcohol transportation fuel.

Prior to joining Garbrook, Henrique worked as a consultant for Hart Energy’s Global Biofuels Center. He has extensive business experience in Brazil and has authored a number of reports on the country's biofuels industry, which, because of its size and depth, impacts alternative energy initiatives worldwide. Henrique has also written editorials on the Brazilian ethanol and sugar industry for various publications.