Algal Turf technology is a biosystem that uptakes excess amounts of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, from wastewater sources. This system also produces cleaner recycled water, 02, and algal biomass. These systems if implemented in agriculture settings can decrease the nutrients in the wastewater improving the water quality of the water allowing it to be reused for irrigation of agriculture farms or industry. The produced algae biomass also has the potential to be used as biodiesel, bioethanol, or biofertilizer. Unfortunately, there is limited information and training available for farmers to apply algal turf technology to their farms. This project focuses on implementing an Algal Turf system to analyze the potential of the biomass produced and how the system improves the water quality by focusing on flowrate of the wastewater and biomass yield. Preliminary results indicate that they system with the highest flow rate has the most biomass yield and the most nutrient removal with phosphorus removal being the most significant. We will analyze the quality of the algal biomass for related studies such as biofertilizers, animal feed and bioenergy. To then train, educate and have farmers utilize these systems in Delaware in order to improve the farms wastewater quality.
Keywords: Algal Turf, nutrient uptake, biomass, fertilizer