A research and development facility for algae biofuels will soon be built on The University of Toledo Scott Park Campus for Energy and Innovation.<\/p>\n
The pilot-scale facility is part of a research project recently awarded a nearly $3 million grant through the Ohio Third Frontier Wright Projects Program that links research capabilities of Ohio’s colleges, universities and nonprofit research institutions with the needs of industry in the state.<\/p>\n
Ohio University and UT are leading the three-year Center for Algal Engineering Research and Commercialization project that has a dozen collaborators, including many Ohio businesses involved in the energy industry.<\/p>\n
For UT’s part, the half-acre facility at Scott Park will be constructed to include open ponds, ponds in a greenhouse and enclosed photobioreactors to test efficiency of a variety of growth systems. The facility will also have pilot-scale “downstream processing” capabilities where the algae materials could be converted to fuel \u0013 a complete system, said Dr. Sridhar Viamajala, UT assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering and a principal investigator of the project.<\/p>\n