Monday August 18^th – Day 8

            Today we packed up and went to Universidade Federal do Parana.  We got a tour of the hydraulic department where large models are made to demonstrate the water flow behind and through dams.  We saw the model of Belo Monte which is a future dam in the Amazon.  The land is surveyed, cross sections determined, the topography is made with concrete, and then water is added to the model.  These models are only used to measure the water level and velocity.  The environmental and flooding impacts would be a different departments concern.  Another model we saw was the spillway for Belo Monte dam for the projection of the discharge.  The erosion at the bottom of the spillway is checked and helped determined that the current spillway is not a good design.  The guide showed us a tank that used to contain fish and test the water velocities.  Water velocities that are too low will not encourage fish to stay in the area and velocities too high will not allow fish to jump/swim easily enough.  I found this hydraulic and environmental part of the visit interesting, as I would not have originally considered all of these components, especially monitoring water velocity for the fish.

         In the second lab that we visited at the university, biomass for fuel and other products was the focus of the research.  Bacteria containing a lot of oil are chosen for these experiments and then exposed to carbon dioxide for photosynthesis to occur.  The process takes a long time and the experimentation with microorganisms is done in the lab, but then must be scaled up for large projects and notable results.  The lab found that the microalgae grow best when the entire sample is exposed to carbon dioxide and not just the surface, such as in raceway ponds, so this lab injects carbon dioxide into the system instead.  The fascinating part is that the carbon dioxide used is only from the air!  The lab still tests nutrients for the microalgae for improvements and efficiency.  The algae growth is monitored in the lab and then placed in photobioreactors which we were able to see outside.  The three photobioreactors were located in an area that receives a lot of direct sunlight and have carbon dioxide injected at the bottom of each structure.  Each compact photobioreactor produces 10 kg of microalgae biomass, which has multiple purposes.  The oil that is removed from the microalgae biomass can be used for biodiesel and the remaining dry biomass can be used in supplements, cosmetics, and even biogas in a biodigester.  This lab has goals to use the energy from the biomass/biofuel to power the building and to make the process and photobioreactors more efficient, along with increasing the oil content in the biomass.  When the biomass is taken out of the photobioreactor the tubes are cleaned and the residue is then reused so the process of creating the microalgae takes less time and biomass can be made faster and more efficiently.  This system does not produce any residuals or emissions, oxygen is the only emission!  I found this entire process very interesting and it was exciting to visit a lab that is in the forefront when discovering new biofuel technologies!