A $50,000 grant from Duke Energy will help make Indiana University Bloomington one of the first universities in the U.S. to convert emissions from its heating plant into fertilizer to feed campus vegetation. To make this happen, a group composed of specialists from across the campus -- including a faculty biologist, facility engineers and landscapers, and marketing and sustainability students -- have designed a system known as a photobioreactor. Made of PVC pipes, the structure will be housed on the roof of IU Bloomington's Central Heating Plant and will convert emissions from the smokestacks into fertilizer via photosynthesis.

View print quality image Bruce Calloway, center, presents the check from Duke Energy to project leaders Mark Menefee, left, and Stephen "Chip" Glaholt. Photo by Bailey Briscoe, IU Communications

Water vapor generated from the heating plant's smokestacks will be condensed and pumped into the bioreactor tubes, which will house algae. Then, emissions from the heating plant containing carbon and nitrogen will bubble into the tubes to feed and suspend the algae. The transparent tubes allow sunlight to catalyze the photosynthesis process of the algae, creating a usable, sustainable, nutrient-rich fertilizer. To start, the fertilizer will be used in the more than 200 flower beds across campus. "With all of its measureable and novel contributions, this project has the potential to be an iconic symbol of IU's commitment to sustainability and education," said Stephen "Chip" Glaholt, an adjunct faculty member and researcher in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Bloomington, and a co-leader on the project. Also co-leading the project is Mark Menefee, the assistant director for utility services at IU Bloomington's Central Heating Plant, who has been experimenting with similar projects for several years. SPEA students Darah Meister, Tucker Jaroll and Anna Groover also worked on different aspects of the project, including design and research. Students Maddie Corgiat, Nikhil Prasad, Bailey Kaplon and the late Megan Yoder of Net Impact, a sustainable business club in IU's Kelley School of Business, coordinated marketing and fundraising efforts and were heavily involved in the process to apply for the Duke Energy Grant.

View print quality image The IU Bloomington project will be modeled after this photobioreactor system, located at Duke Energy's East Bend Coal Power Plant and designed by the University of Kentucky's Center for Applied Energy Research group. Photo courtesy of Center for Applied Energy Research