By Carmen Pease
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| David Bayless |
It doesn't always take something colossally elaborate, new-fangled or over-the-top to make an impact on the world. As David Bayless and his colleagues discovered, sometimes the simplest strategies are all it takes.Bayless, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has developed a device that might help curb global warming by naturally recycling the carbon dioxide emitted from power plants.
His device, dubbed a photo bioreactor, uses one of Earth's most basic organisms as its defining feature: algae. Imported from the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, these spongy masses, like all plants, use carbon dioxide to produce their food. This process is known as photosynthesis and acts like a natural filter for the gas.
The basic idea is that the algae will be positioned at the source of the carbon dioxide emissions within the individual smokestacks. Then natural light will be piped into the ducts to allow the algae full-reign to photosynthesize and subsist.
Bayless said this increases the amount of the gas in the atmosphere and upsets the cological balance, because nature is only meant to handle a certain amount of carbon dioxide. Plant life cannot photosynthesize the additional carbon dioxide, so the unused gas accumulates in the air.
"Studies have shown that if you double the amount of carbon dioxide, plants don't adapt. They grow faster, but they don't produce the same proteins and the bugs that eat their leaves have to eat much more to get the same nutrition. It affects the whole food chain. Nature isn't set up to rapidly respond to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," he said.
The carbon dioxide that collects in the air serves as an insulating blanket, trapping heat inside the Earth's atmosphere. This is what is known, fittingly, as the greenhouse effect. The carbon dioxide acts like the glass panes of a greenhouse and causes the Earth's temperature to rise, Bayless said.
While working at American Electric Power, the issue of emissions continually faced Bayless and other engineers. At the time, though, the only option for managing the carbon dioxide was to treat it as a waste and bury it somewhere, either in mines or under the ocean.
In contemplating alternatives, Bayless tried to think of something that would fix the problem rather than just divert it. "I asked myself, 'What can we do that's more long-term?' But nature already does it - photosynthesis," he said.
With that epiphany in 1997, Bayless' endeavor was underway.
Two years later, he received funding from the Department of Energy and began working on the project's blueprints. Since then, the project has unfolded into something worthy of science fiction.
"Fundamentally, I support the use of coal," Bayless said. "My personal mission is to make it as clean as possible."
That's where the algae come in. Because algae are the fastest growing photosynthetic organisms and are relatively simple since they have no root systems, they were the chosen catalyst.
Theorized to be able to remove up to half the carbon dioxide from the emissions, this bioreactor is expected to be one of the fastest and safest ways of recycling carbon dioxide, Bayless said.
With several recent trial runs under their belts, the project is moving right along. Although the algae ended up being harder to harvest than they had initially thought, they adapted well to living in the high concentrations of carbon dioxide. The next step for the team is to take the bioreactor to power plants and map its progress in a real-life situation.
To add to the excitement, Bayless just received $4 million worth of funding for a second project that is "a nice dovetail" from the bioreactor project. This one involves making use of the dead algae from the bioreactor by using what is called a gasifier to break down the harvested biomass. From this, hydrogen is released and can be used in fuel cells, which is a clean and efficient alternate way of producing energy.
So even though cars don't have wings and there still aren't colonies on Mars, Bayless and his colleagues recognize that sometimes better than any far-fetched gadget or gizmo is time-honored simplicity. It just might save the world.
Part two of this article will appear in the July 23 edition of Outlook. The full-length version of this article originally ran on the Athensi.com Web site.
Carmen Pease is a student writer with University Communications and Marketing.
