UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff KKeennttuucckkyy UUKKnnoowwlleeddggee Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Agricultural Engineering 2011 EEVVAALLUUAATTIINNGG AALLGGAALL GGRROOWWTTHH AATT DDIIFFFFEERREENNTT TTEEMMPPEERRAATTUURREESS Keelin Owen Cassidy University of Kentucky, [email protected] RRiigghhtt cclliicckk ttoo ooppeenn aa ffeeeeddbbaacckk ffoorrmm iinn aa nneeww ttaabb ttoo lleett uuss kknnooww hhooww tthhiiss ddooccuummeenntt bbeenneefifittss yyoouu.. RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Cassidy, Keelin Owen, "EVALUATING ALGAL GROWTH AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES" (2011). Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. 3. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/bae_etds/3 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at UKnowledge. 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I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless a preapproved embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. RREEVVIIEEWW,, AAPPPPRROOVVAALL AANNDD AACCCCEEPPTTAANNCCEE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s dissertation including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Keelin Owen Cassidy, Student Dr. C. L. Crofcheck, Major Professor Dr. Dwayne Edwards, Director of Graduate Studies EVALUATING ALGAL GROWTH AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES _____________________________________ THESIS _____________________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky By Keelin Owen Cassidy Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. C. L. Crofcheck, Associate Professor of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Lexington, Kentucky 2011 Copyright © Keelin Owen Cassidy 2011 9 ABSTRACT OF THESIS EVALUATING ALGAL GROWTH AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES In recent years, there has been a concern for the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and how it will be captured. One way to capture carbon dioxide is with algae. In this study, algae's growth was measured at different temperatures. The first part of the study was to grow Scenedesmus and Chlorella with M8 or urea growth media at a temperature of 25, 30 or 35ºC. It was found that 30ºC had the best growth rates for both algae. The second part studied Scenedesmus growth with urea, more in-depth, and found the optimum growth temperature to be 27.5ºC with a growth rate of 0.29 1/hr. The last part of the study was a heat transfer model which predicted the temperature of a greenhouse and an outdoor unit. The model could also predict the growth rate of the algae and the temperature if flue gas is mixed in with the algae. KEYWORDS: algae, CO mitigation, Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus, temperature 2 Keelin Owen Cassidy December 1, 2011 iv EVALUATING ALGAL GROWTH AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES By Keelin Owen Cassidy Czarena Crofcheck Director of Thesis Dwayne Edwards Director of Graduate Studies December 1, 2011 v To Team Algae: (Dr. Czarena Crofcheck, Aubrey Shea, Sarah Short, Tabitha Graham, Ian Colten, and Maya Bentley) Without them algae would just be pond scum. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my parents, George and Sheilagh Duncan. If it weren’t for their love, encouragement, and support I would not be where I am today. Thank you, Dr. Czar Crofcheck. If it weren’t for your love of candy, I would have never made it to Kentucky. Ok I’m kidding, but seriously, thank you Dr. Crofcheck for this opportunity to study at the University of Kentucky. This opportunity has taught me a lot about algae and about myself. I have also enjoyed working and getting to know you. I would also like to thank Aubrey Shea. Thank you for everything from answering all my question and lending an ear when I needed one. You have been a great friend. Thank you, Alicia Modenbach, for being a great officemate. You listened to my crazy adventures (like my retirement plan), drama, and provided a tissue when the going was getting tough; so thank you. There will never be an officemate like you. For Dr. Mike Montross, thank you for your help when I needed it and joining us at “seminar”. It was great getting to know you and having a good laugh while hanging out in the lab. Thank you, Dr. Caye Drapcho, for giving me the confidence in knowing I can do this. You have been great mentor and a friend. Thank you to Maya Bentley, Ian Colten, Tabitha Graham, Sarah Short, and Aaron Turner for your help even when it was just small chit chat about algae. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. iv List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1 : Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Flue Gas ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Current Research on Capturing CO ................................................................... 2 2 1.3 Selection of Algae .................................................................................................... 3 1.3.1 Algae Strains ...................................................................................................... 4 1.3.2 Autotrophic versus Heterotrophic ...................................................................... 5 1.3.3 Light Requirements ............................................................................................ 6 1.3.4 Temperature Requirements ................................................................................ 6 1.4 Past uses of algae ..................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Research Objectives ................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 2 : Materials and Methods ................................................................................... 9 2.1 Algae culture and media preparation ................................................................... 9 2.2 Experimental Set Up ............................................................................................... 9 2.3 Analytical Methods ............................................................................................... 13 2.4 Growth Rate .......................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 3 : Temperature Experiments ............................................................................ 17 3.1 Varying Strains and Media Results ....................................................................... 17 3.2 Scenedesmus and Urea Media Results ................................................................ 20 Chapter 4 : The Model ..................................................................................................... 23 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 23 4.2 The Flue Gas Energy Balance .............................................................................. 23 4.2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 23 4.2.2 Assumptions ..................................................................................................... 25 4.2.3 The energy balance .......................................................................................... 25 4.3 The Greenhouse Model......................................................................................... 25 4.3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 25 4.3.2 Assumptions ..................................................................................................... 26 4.3.3 The Greenhouse Model .................................................................................... 27 4.3.4 Results .............................................................................................................. 28 Chapter 5 : Conclusions .................................................................................................. 34 Chapter 6 : Future Work ................................................................................................. 35 iv Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 36 Appendix A: Model Development Data .................................................................... 36 Appendix B: Temperature Experiment Protocol..................................................... 39 Appendix C: Calibration of Equipment ................................................................... 41 References ........................................................................................................................ 43 Vita .................................................................................................................................... 47 v LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1. Growth medium composition. .......................................................................... 9 Table 3.1. Gradient experiment growth rates (µ) and standard error (Stan Err) with n=3 for both Scenedesmus (Sc) and Chlorella vulgaris (Ch). ................................................. 18 Table 3.2. ANOVA table of the main effects of Chlorella and Scenedesmus. ................. 19 Table 3.3. ANOVA for Chlorella ..................................................................................... 19 Table 3.4. ANOVA for Scenedesmus ............................................................................... 19 Table 3.5. The p-value of difference in temperature for Scenedesmus and Chlorella. ..... 20 Table 3.6. Scenedesmus growth rates for various temperature standard errors. ............... 21 Table 3.7. Pairwise comparison for Scenedesmus grown on urea. Bold p-values indicate the two treatments are significantly different with α = 0.05. ............................................ 21 Table 4.1. Constants for the greenhouse model. ............................................................... 28 vi