University of Illinois researchers are to develop an educational and research facility that will be used to demonstrate the process of converting swine manure and algae into crude oil. Lance Schideman, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) at Illinois and Yuanhui Zhang, also a professor in ABE, have both spend a considerable length of time researching integrated algae systems for water purification and biomass production.
"With this system, we will first convert swine manure into crude oil in a hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) reactor," Professor Schideman said. "The resultant waste water contains nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which can be used to grow algae. These fast-growing algae will remove the excess nutrients and capture carbon dioxide. Finally, the algae will be fed back into the HTL reactor to be converted into additional biocrude oil." Read more ...
"With this system, we will first convert swine manure into crude oil in a hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) reactor," Professor Schideman said. "The resultant waste water contains nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which can be used to grow algae. These fast-growing algae will remove the excess nutrients and capture carbon dioxide. Finally, the algae will be fed back into the HTL reactor to be converted into additional biocrude oil." Read more ...
