A team of students led by Morgan Cobb has been awarded funding from the Planet Blue Student Innovation Fund. The project is a device that will remove carbon dioxide from the Huron River, with a larger device planned for implementation in the Ann Arbor Wastewater Treatment Plant. Cobb is a Global CO2 Initiative Student Association member, and is supported by students Eli Weaver (SEAS), Zachary Rose (Chemistry), and Nikunj Bhimaria (Ross Business) and Susan Fancy (Associate Director, Global CO2 Initiative).
Fancy began the project last summer, and starting in the fall under Cobb’s direction the students assessed engineering, nature-based, and hybrid options available for removing CO2 from the Great Lakes. After developing pros and cons of a wide array of options, the team split to explore two possibilities in depth: incorporating a microbial electrolytic fuel cell powered by renewable energy into a wastewater treatment plant, and using regional or invasive species to create biochar. These choices reflect the learning that removing carbon dioxide from freshwater sources is best done economically when attached to systems that are already moving freshwater around, so places such as wastewater plants, powerplants. The concept to use regional species to create biochar came from the need to address invasive species removal on Great Lakes shores, and in the broader Great Lakes region.
Eli Weaver, a Master’s student in Ecosystem Science and Management, heard about the project from his academic advisor Paul Seelbach, a professor of practice in Aquatic Ecology and Science in the School for Environment and Sustainability. The team was in need of a freshwater ecologist, and Weaver was immediately interested in the prospect of contributing to something significant related to climate change.
“Working alongside like-minded individuals from varying disciplines who all care deeply about the climate crisis and are internally driven to work towards finding the most effective CDR solutions in the Great Lakes is incredibly refreshing. It makes me hopeful for our generation’s ability to meet the plethora of challenges that climate change will pose to us in our lifetimes, and excites me for the possibilities of future student teams to generate meaningful carbon capture solutions,” Weaver said in regards to the project.
While the wastewater treatment plant team utilizes their funding to build a proof of concept, the biochar team will be investigating conversion and removal methods in addition to possible applications.
