UT professor awarded $3.2 million to advance algae biofuel technology

Aug. 15—The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the University of Toledo a $3.2 million grant to build on research that efficiently captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to grow algae.

The federal grant will be used to advance chemical engineering professor Sridhar Viamajala's research and bring the technology he and his team patented closer to commercialization, Mr. Viamajala said.

UT's award is part of $34 million announced by the DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office to fund 11 projects across the country that develop biomass resources to convert trash into low-carbon fuel for planes and ships, reducing the transportation industry's carbon footprint.

Mr. Viamajala said he and his team patented a farming technique called "direct air capture," which culls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using algae in an alkaline solution — a solution that has a pH higher than seven.

The alkaline solution reacts with the algae and thereby captures the carbon dioxide. Once the carbon dioxide is in the solution, algae feed on it and convert it into biomass, he said.

Biomass is a plant or animal material that can then be made into biofuels, he added.

"Biofuels are substitutes for petroleum fuels," Mr. Viamajala said. "They are a more sustainable and renewable resource than the use of petroleum. [By making biofuels, the use of] petroleum will decrease and there will be lower [carbon dioxide] emissions." Large amounts of carbon dioxide are produced when petroleum is burned.

"This helps mitigate climate change," he said.

His team, which includes participants from UT, Montana State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Global Algae Innovations, will also try to produce plastics and materials for batteries using the biomass produced.

Mr. Viamajala said he has been developing this research for years.

He started working with algae 10 years ago, which then "slowly morphed" into an idea of using algae for "direct air capture" five years ago, he said.

"We've been working hard on trying to move this technology forward," he said. "This grant reinforces our belief that this is a technology that has the potential to succeed commercially."

First Published August 15, 2021, 4:00pm