INVESTIGATION OF MEDIA INGREDIENTS AND WATER SOURCES FOR ALGAE CO2 CAPTURE AT DIFFERENT SCALES TO DEMONSTRATE THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN LAB-SCALE AND LARGE-SCALE GROWTH

• Main Author: Graham, Tabitha
• Format: Others
• Published: UKnowledge 2013
• Subjects: algae; carbon dioxide mitigation; media; climate change; nutrients; Agriculture; Biology; Engineering
• Online Access: http://uknowledge.uky.edu/bae_etds/16; http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=bae_etds

As energy use increases globally the environmental burdens increase alike. Many accusations have been made that carbon dioxide is a culprit of climate change. The University of Kentucky and Duke Energy Power have partnered to test carbon capture technology in a large scale project. To this end, the objective of this thesis is to investigate potential water media sources and nutrient sources at different volume scales for algae cultivation to help create a more environmentally viable and economically feasible solution. This work will conduct a life cycle assessment of water media sources and the effects of the inputs and outputs needed for each medium. The up-scaling objective of the research is to identify which parameters vary as a result of up-scaling and how to maintain a culture at the large scale that is standardized to the lab scale culture.