Turning waste into bio-value: pilot plant to grow microalgae on mining lands.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: MINING

Northern Ontario mining lands may one day also serve as active producers of microalgae for biofuel and health-industry biochemicals, if researchers from Laurentian University and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine have their way.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Sudbury scientists are turning their eyes to lands adjacent to smelters such as Sudbury based Xstrata Nickel operations, where carbon dioxide emissions could help feed the growth of microalgae in specially-designed systems set up on so-called "non-productive" portions of mining lands.

Rather than the large clumps of weeds sometimes seen floating in area lakes, this particular type of algae is made up of "single-cellular little green things" that cannot be seen by the naked eye and gives a greenish tinge to any body of water, according to Dr. Ashley Scott of Laurentian's School of Engineering.

These microscopic plants provide 30 times more oil feedstock for use in biodiesel per hectare than plants like canola, and could be processed to extract any number of valuable chemicals for use in natural health products.

"The goal is to produce a menu of products as opposed to one single product," says Scott.

"One could be higher-volume and locally consumed like biofuels, and one could be lower-volume but higher value which you could purify and sell off elsewhere."

A biochemical engineer by background, Scott has known for some time the genuine value in algae, particularly for biodiesel use. In fact, part of the impetus for kicking off the project has been the increasing interest from a number of mining companies looking for alternative energy sources for underground operations.

Rather than the "warm and fuzzies" of environmental benefits, the idea is that biodiesel contains less sulfur dioxide and particulates, and therefore, requires less ventilation, something that is costly for mining houses.

There is the potential that Northern Ontario can become a large-scale biodiesel production manufacturer for the market, says Scott. This means batches could be produced in the North and used by Northern mining operations.

Existing commercial plants for microalgae are typically based in warm, sunny locales such as California, Israel and Hawaii, often making use of salt water, rather than freshwater.

After first examining the potential to recover energy from the water pumped out of mine sites, Scott soon turned his eye to the "huge quantities of heat literally going up the smelter stacks" in the form of...