Patrick Hatcher

Two scientists at Old Dominion University (ODU) are conducting cutting-edge research on producing a biofuel from algae and creating a scale-able process for industry. Patrick Hatcher, Batten Endowed chair of Physical Science Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Sandeep Kumar, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of ODU’s Energy Cluster, have been working on this issues for a decade.

Sandeep Kumar

Algae contains oil, which can be extracted for fuel, but it also contains proteins, and the team has been working on ways to extract the proteins for sustainable substitutes to petroleum-based fuels. In 2013, NSF awarded Kumar a grant to work on a process using flash hydrolysis to recover proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids from algae oil, and then use hydrothermal mineralization to recover inorganic nutrients for recycling. He was awarded a second grant in 2016 to pilot a mobile flash hydrolyzer that could harvest products from micro-algae, which can be used as an alternative to feedstock to produce transportation fuels.

Besides creating biofuels, the team is also interested in creating valuable materials from the bi-products of the algal fuel development. They hold several patents on turning those bi-products into economical chemicals. The team is excited to continue to work with industry partners on creating cost-effective solutions to energy problems.

Adapted from an article in News @ ODU