What to do about harmful algal blooms? Turn them into biofuel, says Byron Donalds - Naples Daily News

Bill would have Corps skim cyanobacteria from waterways to make biofuel

What to do about harmful algal blooms? Turn them into biofuel, says Byron Donalds
Amy Bennett Williams

Naples Congressman Byron Donalds says his recently introduced bill to turn cyanobacteria into biofuel could be a win/win: un-gunked water with a new energy source as a bonus byproduct, though he admits "It’s not sexy.”

Co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast of Fort Pierce, H.R. 8779 would “require projects in the Caloosahatchee River watershed, the St. Lucie River and estuary basin, and the Lake Okeechobee watershed that mitigate harmful algal blooms and nutrient pollution by removing algae and converting the algae biomass into biofuel, and for other purposes.”

Essentially, it would direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to figure out a way to harvest cyanobacteria, known as blue-green algae and turn it into what’s called biocrude.

The stuff’s certainly not in short supply. Blooms are a regular summer event in the Lake Okeechobee watershed, and sometimes swell to catastrophic proportions – plus the Corps has some experience with the process. In 2019, it tried a pilot in Moore Haven, later followed by others with modifications.

Did it work? “In the 2019 proof-of-concept study, the fuel yields were limited,” wrote Martin Page, of the Corps’ Engineering Research and Development Center. “In 2020, changes were made that increased fuel yields while maintaining water treatment performance."

Byron Donalds: 'Ideas can take a little while to bake'

Acronymed HABITATS, for Harmful Algal Bloom Interception, Treatment, and Transformation System, it’s a three-step process that physically removes algae from water, concentrates it, returns clean water to the environment, then transforms the removed algae into fuel while treating for toxins in that algae, Page says. “The generation of biocrude fuel as a byproduct occurs in the ‘transformation’ step."

An extra benefit to the this approach is that it also removes nutrients absorbed into the cyanobacteria cells as the algae grow. “HABITATS treats the symptom and one of the key causes of harmful algal blooms: nutrients,” he says.

Would the process pay for itself? No, Page says, at least in the hypothetical case they studied, “though it could help offset a small fraction of the costs pending maturation of the biocrude utilization pathways."

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds tackles algae Naples congressman retries bipartisan bill on harmful blooms

Where the algae is in the water makes a difference too.

“Implementation … is more economical for surface blooms in which the algae is predominantly concentrated near the water surface,” Page wrote.

But even if there’s not a ton of money to be made, “there could be other environmental and economic benefits.”

As far as Donalds is concerned, "Being able to skim the harmful algae … so it can be repurposed just makes sense," he said.

Next, “We’ve got to try to get buy-in from other members, and on down the line,” Donalds said. “A lot of times, ideas can take a little while to bake, but you never know – you could find somebody high enough up on the chain who really enjoys the idea.”

Sexy or not, though, Donalds says "You’ve just got to work it and figure out how you can get it across the finish line.”