Currently, I am a second year Masters student at New Mexico State University in the Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Ecology department. I plan on defending my thesis and graduating this May (remember Zing Phrase #13? Graduation or Death!) Since the research I proposed to the Hi-SEAS review committee is a continuation of my present research, I feel it would be helpful to introduce you to the world of algae cultivation for biodiesel production. 

Nannochloropsis salina and other organisms

Perhaps you’ve heard of ethanol, or another source of renewable biofuel? The energy stored in algae lipids may be refined in a similar process to create biodiesel. Microalgae are ideal sources of energy because they are capable of year-round production, require less water than terrestrial crops, and produce valuable co-products.

The main goal of my project is to address limitations of algae cultivation methods through an aquatic ecology approach. Increasing lipid production in these systems while minimizing the invasion of non-target algae will improve the cost of algal biofuel. The simplest approach would be to manipulate environmental factors to simultaneously promote algal growth and limit competitor or predator growth.

‘Invading organisms’ are usually dispersed by the wind (and right now New Mexico has plenty of that to go around) and can include diatoms, rotifers, ciliates, and cyanobacteria. They are pests to the algae industry when they munch all the nutrients meant for the target algae or munch the target algae themselves!

Our species, Nannochloropsis salina, was selected due to exhibit high growth rates, lipid productivity, and a wide tolerance range for different environmental parameters. Meaning, these guys might be small, but there is strength in numbers and they’ll be tough against competitors and predators. Salinity, pH, and temperature are valuable environmental parameters to utilize for our purposes. Each parameter is the focus of a pair of experiments:

2012 Temperature Experiment

1. Nannochloropsis Growth and Invading Organism Occurrence at Different Levels of [Salinity, pH, Temperature] 
2.   Nannochloropsis Lipid Accumulation 

Samples from these experiments are later quantified by some very diligent and helpful undergraduate students. Imagine spending a few hours with your eyes glued to a microscope counting little green circles! (Note: I do not actually glue my undergrads to their microscope…yet.) Other samples are taken to a special lab on campus where I work with some very knowledgeable and helpful researchers to determine lipid accumulation. They even go a step further and investigate what different kinds of lipids are present!

2010 Salinity Experiment

Once experiments are completed and data is collected and analysed, there still remains the process of writing everything up into a concise and informative manuscript. When I am ready to defend I will have a thesis with three separate chapters that cover everything I have worked on during my time at NMSU. Before I may graduate my committee must read it all and I will present my findings in a 40 minutes presentation. Eventually, each of my three thesis chapter will be reformatted into journal articles that may be submitted for publication, along with other papers I may write with data from other research endeavors. 

I hope you now feel confident with your new algae cultivation knowledge. More important than being able to conduct research is being able to communicate the concepts and results to the public successfully. I hope I’ve been able to do that today. Please ask questions if you are interested in learning more!

I will try to speak more in depth about different aspects of the life of a graduate student. But for now, thanks for reading along with me. Please also check out my new ‘Experiences‘ tab for a taste of the fun life as a scientist can entail!

Question of the Day:
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