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July 25, 2008

Dalton Utilities to start producing biodiesel from algae

By Charles Oliver

You’ve heard of black gold. But what about green gold?

Dalton Utilities officials and researchers from the University of Georgia are working on ways to use the wastewater from the carpet industry to grow algae.

Why algae?

“We know you can produce biodiesel from algae,” said Dalton Utilities president Don Cope. “They are evaluating our waste stream to come up with a way of maximizing fuel production from the waste stream and marrying the process to the remainder of our wastewater treatment process.”

Cope says the process could be ready by 2009.

“We would gather the wastewater and remove the algae and put it in some sort of pond or reactor device to cultivate it and grow it,” he said. “We might be able to use the reservoirs and other facilities we have in place.”

Cope said the utility would likely use all of the diesel it produces itself, to run vehicles and emergency generators.

“It depends upon the volume. We use about 200,000 gallons of diesel a year in our operations. It would be a big push for us to produce that much,” he said.

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