Anastasiia Matkovska; Austin Bettridge; Jeff Keller, Utah Valley University
Utah Lake has long been plagued by toxic cyanobacteria that strangle out the other living organisms in the lake. The goal for this project, headed by Dr. Kevin Shurtleff of the UVU Chemistry Department, is to produce a low energy collection device that can gather microalgae and cyanobacteria from Utah Lake. The most effective solution is to remove the microalgae as they grow. This both lowers the population and decreases the concentration of the compounds that they thrive on, such as fertilizers and other pollutants. The biomass collected can also be used in productive ways, particularly when converted to a carbon neutral biofuel. Our hypothesis is that if we put a large voltage across two insulated metal plates, the negatively charged microalgae will be drawn to the positive plate, allowing its collection via a porous conveyor belt running along the top of the positive plate. This process has been shown to work in many applications, such as mining and water desalination. This microalgae harvesting method would be ideal, since we could hypothetically concentrate the microalgae in one continuous process, as opposed to batches using a filter or centrifuge, and at a much lower cost. Our end goal is to be able to mount the entire apparatus onto a boat that can collect microalgae directly from the lake.