Friday, September 17, 2010

Tuesday Meeting

Hey Everyone,

I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday at ABE from 3-5pm.

Best,
Derek

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Engineering Open House

Algae Members,

On Friday we discussed the necessary arrangements for the EOH project. The exhibit will be located in the east atrium of the Digital Computer Lab (DCL) and we are planning to wear green shirts. We need volunteers to help out with setting up the reactor and manning the booth. So please reply to the group if you can help out.


Best,
Derek


Monday 1-4pm Reactor Setup
This Monday we will be running our reactor side by side with the anaerobic digester. Please respond to everyone if you can help out. We will also be looking for volunteers during the week to finish the setup.


Thursday 7-9pm Exhibit Setup
We need volunteers to help relocate the reactors and setup the exhibit in DCL. Please reply to everyone if you can make it. Right now we have not verified the availability of any volunteers.


Weekend Algae Booth Schedule
We also need volunteers for Friday morning (Alex can you fill in or Yan can you switch spots... I have an exam in the morning). Other members are also welcome to help support the booth, so the more the merrier.

Friday 9-3pm
9:00-11:00am
11:00-1:00pm - Chih-Ting Kuo
1:00-3:00pm - Yan Zhou / Derek Vardon (2-3pm Claire Slupski)

Saturday 9-2pm
9:00-11:00am - Oliver Hui
11:00-12:00pm - Anna Oldani
12:00-2:00pm - Michael Grimwade

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Latest Updates


Illini Algae Members,


It has been a crazy but exciting week with many updates. I know it is a long post, but please brew a cup of coffee, find a comfy chair, and give it a read. We have some upcoming events and opportunities to get involved so we need your feedback. Thanks in advance.

Derek

Upcoming Events

BioEnergy Seminar: Prof Schideman will be giving a talk this Monday at 4pm for the ACES 501 Seminar entitled, “Environment Enhancing Energy – Synergism of Algae Biofuels with Waste Treatment for Agricultural, Energy and Municipal Applications” in the Monsanto Room of the ACES Library. The Daily Illini will also be running an article Monday morning highlighting his group's research as a preview for the seminar. So grab a copy and please come out and show your support.

2nd General Meeting: Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Friday, March 5th from 4-5pm on the 2nd floor of ABE. Please reply and let me know if this would work for most group members and we can reserve the room (and look into providing some food).

Algae Wheel Facility: Just this week Kuo was able to visit the Indiana treatment facility, obtain several algae/wastewater samples for analysis, and take a bunch of great pictures. We have arranged a group tour that will also include the members from the EPA on March 2nd. Please reply if you can make it.

Possible Future Tours: Many worthwhile opportunities exist to see what is going on in the algae biofuel community. Our group can schedule tours at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center to see the work going on for oil extraction, analysis and conversion, the ABE Hydro Thermal Process Continuous Reactor where they are converting algae and waste to crude oil, the BioAlternative biodiesel plant also located across the border in Indiana, and the possibly the Solar Winds algae cultivation facility where they are growing high lipid content algae for biofuel and pharmaceutical applications. Please reply if you're interested. We'll also cover these opportunities at our next meeting.

Team Updates

Algal Grow Team: Oliver and Michael have been diligently tracking the growth of cultures that will be used to spike the large 20L and 200L reactors next week. We will also be prepping a reactor for the Engineering Open House exhibit. We are looking for volunteers to help out on Saturday afternoons with the design and installation of a membrane harvesting and UV disinfection unit we've acquired so please post below if you can get involved.

Carbon Capture Team
: Alex has been finalizing our CO2 gas delivery and monitoring system. The data will be recorded with a computer system we have recently acquired and we would like to eventually setup a monitoring system to track growth conditions for the reactors (e.g pH, DO, temperature, optical density, CO2, ambient light) and the membrane harvesting system (flux decline, flowrate, etc.). We would like to setup side by side reactors to compare different environmental conditions and their effects on growth rates and lipid accumulation so post below if you would like to get involved.

Group Website: Anna Oldani is currently working on an "Intro to Algae" webcast and we are currently looking for other interested members who would like to contribute to other topics (photosynthesis, algal culturing, growth monitoring, etc). We will also be overhauling the website to include faculty working on algae research, latest news and updates from the Illini Algae group, and Illini algae member profiles. Please post below if you'd be interested in providing/updating any material for the website.