Zach's blog on environmental engineering

In today's post I will be talking about my trip to the Philippines for my internship with Comfac Corporation. I spent six weeks in the Philippines for an internship with Comfac Corp. and to write a research paper about Comfac's plant, Cornersteel Systems, and their new project of creating a photobioreactor to minimize carbon emissions. During my trip I met and discussed Cornersteel's project with local university professors and PhD students while experiencing the full extent of the Philippines through visiting underprivileged communities and the wildlife in the island's diverse ecosystem. Below, I'll summarize my vacation to the Philippines, including both the employment and the exploring aspects.

In today's article, I'll talk about a research paper I discovered to learn more about photobioreactors, which is required for my internship. Reading the article The design and performance of a low-cost, automated, large-scale photobioreactor for microalgae production will help me prepare for my internship at Comfac Systems Corp., who is developing a photobioreactor for their factory. The paper discusses the use of Tetraselmis chuii as the algae for the photobioreactor.

This month I will be reviewing the LA fires, devastating wildfires that have killed 25 people, displaced 100,000, and caused tens of billions of dollars in damages. Looking at the BU article How and Why the LA Wildfires Grew So Fast—and Lessons for the Future, I will be briefly covering the LA fires summarizing the main details about the event.

In this post I will be talking about my latest activity with the Fair Haven Green Team, Love Where You Live Day. The team and I set this up to celebrate the town and support local businesses. People from around the town came to the event, which had live music and many local businesses that were there to promote their work. While many local residents were walking around, I got many to sign a pledge to help better the environment to help Fair Haven. Activities like biking more or using recyclable water bottles are what people would pledge to do, and with enough signatures, Fair Haven gains points from the state, which can be awarded for grants. 

In this post I will reviewing another method of carbon capture other than an algae bioreactor. A Monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent is another project which focuses on the capture of carbon emissions. It intends to capture the CO2 from diesel ovens and the flue gas exhausted by the power plant in order absorb pure CO2 and store it.

This month I will be reviewing an article on FAU's new technology which prevents harmful algal blooms. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasing globally, driven largely by high nitrogen-to-phosphorus (N:P) ratios in water bodies, making phosphorus a key contributor. FAU researchers attempted to solve this issue by removing the phosphorus from the water. 

In this post I will be examining an article on how scientists found a new way in which phytoplankton are involved in the ocean's cycling and storage of carbon. The article writes about MIT scientists and their discovery of how the phytoplankton, Prohlorococcus, contributes to the ocean's nutrient cycles by cross-feeding DNA building blocks to other microbes.

This month I will be researching bioreactors, a device or system designed to support and control biological processes by providing a controlled environment with specific conditions. The article, Design and Construction of a Low-Cost compressive Loading and Perfusion Flow Bioreactor, highlights the bioreactor's functionality, design, flow system, and data acquisition.

This month, I will be researching aquaculture, the practice of cultivation aquatic organisms for commercial recreational or research purposes. The article, Towards a Low-Carbon Footprint: Current Status and Prospects for Aquaculture, reviews the potential to lower CO2 emissions by aquaculture and the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in aquaculture.  

This month, I will be researching how different algae species can efficiently capture CO2. The article, Investigating Algae for CO2 Capture and Accumulation and Simultaneous Production of Biomass for Biodiesel Production, highlights the study of micro and macro algae for CO2 capture, the consideration of the algae as a biomass resource, and the harvesting techniques to facilitate the efficient capture of CO2. 

In this post, I will be assessing the research article, Minimizing Carbon Footprint via Microalgae as a Biological Capture. The article focuses on. how carbon dioxide capture is crucial for the regulation of climate change and microalgae can facilitate this reaction by capturing CO2 emissions. 

In this post, I will be examining an article about the assessment of the economic and environmental performance of the microalgal biofuel production chain. The article reviews a study was done to focus on a microalgae-based biofuel in a low-carbon French grid scenario and to center on the hotspots in terms of CAPEX/OPEX, GHG emissions, energy demand, and environmental impacts.