Lake Erie Algae Biochar Agricultural Application

Statement of the problem or situation that is being addressed in your application. Lake Erie’s western basin has harmful algal blooms and frequent “dead zones” (areas of low oxygen level). The annual algal blooms threaten water quality of Lake Erie and surrounding communities have seen contaminated drinking water, closed beaches, and damage to fishing and tourism industries. In one study, the algal blooms impose an equivalent annual cost equal to $272M due to the algae’s impact. The algae grows out of control when excessive phosphorus enters the lake. The phosphorus comes from agricultural fertilizers, wastewater, and septic systems up-stream of the lake. • General statement of how this problem is being addressed. This small business proposes to work with local organizations to enable the economic collection of algae and produce a valuable product (bio-char) through pyrolysis, resulting in net negative emissions, carbon sequestration, and phosphorus reduction. This small business has developed a small-scale, innovative bio-gas (evaporated bio-oils and syngas) burner that provides heat necessary for pyrolysis. PSI will use these community driven design specifications to adapt its small-scale pyrolysis technology to a larger pilot plant to convert algae to bio-char. Algal turf scrubber products already exist for harvesting algae from fresh water, but the technology developed in this program will incentivize the use of algal turf scrubber or other harvesting methods in water streams leading to Lake Erie. This will transform local sources of biomass to biochar and prevent harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. Biochar will be used as fertilizer for surrounding communities and farms, displacing conventional fertilizers and thereby reducing the amount of new phosphorus added to the ecosystem. • What is to be done in Phase I? During Phase I, this small business will: (1) engage communities with assistance from a local organizations to discuss process requirements, such as debris, separation of materials, size requirements, algae throughput, location, drying options, and convert these process requirements into design requirements, (2) use community-driven design requirements to modify existing lab-scale self-sustaining pyrolysis technology for prototype design, (3) perform proof-ofconcept testing and demonstrate the production of biochar from algae using biogas combustion, (4) create design specifications related to community needs, and (5) conduct techno-economic analysis of the process to guide the Phase II program. • Commercial Applications and Other Benefits. The proposed approach will demonstrate an economically viable process to produce low-cost biochar for soil amendment applications and reduce the damage to surrounding communities due to algal blooms.