Conference proceeding
Sustainable Energy Education: Biofuels from Solar-Powered Algae Cultures
Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers
24 Jun 2017
Abstract
Renewable, Green, and Sustainable energy utilizing photovoltaics and wind power are well-established in educational laboratories and as topics for student projects. Biofuels are expected to be another cornerstone of future energy scenarios. The prospects for harvesting plants or microorganisms for biomaterial that can be processed into liquid or solid fuels, such as replacements for diesel fuel (‘biodiesel”) are continually improving and nearing feasibility for large-scale implementation. In this paper, we report student projects for solar-powered algae culture on desktop-sized demonstration systems built out of low-cost plastic materials for outdoor operation. Circulating algae culture (seeded with inexpensive ( $10) algae purchased from educational laboratory supply houses) systems, equipped with consumer-grade pumps and instrumented with low-cost sensors powered by solar cells, can be monitored and optimized for biomass yield. We will provide details enabling schools to facilitate educational laboratories and student projects in solar biomass algae culture
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Details
- Title
- Sustainable Energy Education: Biofuels from Solar-Powered Algae Cultures
- Creators
- Michael MaukRichard ChiouIeva NarkeviciuteGabriel Head
- Publication Details
- Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers
- Publisher
- American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Engineering Leadership and Society/Engineering Technology
- Identifiers
- 991020623909904721