Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Committee Chair(s)

Lance C. Seefeldt

Committee

Lance C. Seefeldt

Committee

Scott A. Ensign

Committee

Joan M. Hevel

Abstract

As part of the BioEnergy Team at Utah State Univeristy, my research objectives have been centered around the common theme of innovating new methods and
technology for producing biological compounds and, by means of chemical conversion and/or extraction, isolating new forms of biodiesel available for transportation fuel.
Within the broad scope of this project, I focused on the replacement of freshwater in cultivating such biological systems with wastewaters. If accomplished and correctly
applied, such research would reduce the environmental impact of biodiesel production by reducing the demand for freshwater. It also would reduce production costs by reducing the amount of supplemented nutrients to growth media. In some cases of investigated wastewater types, the biological growth of such organisms hold the potential to clean up, or remediate, pollutants in the water, making it environmentally cleaner, safer, and less expensive than current technologies for disposal.

The research of produced water as a wastewater resource in algal biodiesel production was a 12-18 month proposed project costing $80,000. Other wastewaters were considered as part of a larger biofuels project funded through one earmark of a multimillion dollar grant, the portion of which was devoted to my resources is difficult to quantify but could be approximated at $30,000 over another approximately 12-16 month period.

Checksum

175cea323f403b6d3f1fb01f779efb3c

Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on September 20, 2012.

Download

Included in

Chemistry Commons

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .