Student-built photobioreactor cleans water of livestock waste

Pat Sheridan

The World Health Organization predicts that the worldwide consumption of animal products will increase by 72 percent in the next 15 years. But many developing nations lack the right climates or infrastructure to produce adequate meat, eggs and dairy.

One way that farmers can get lots of bang for their buck in meat production is a Confined Animal Feeding Operation. Farmers use them to raise more animals in less time and for less cost.  Animals and their food, manure and urine are handled under one roof.

But that animal waste leaves a different mess behind: water filled with so many extra nutrients that it’s considered contaminated.

Patrick Sheridan, a graduate student in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Michigan State University, built something called a photobioreactor that uses algae to clean contaminated water and turn extra nutrients into animal feed.

He explains in this podcast here.

Mark Devisser: Tsetse Fly Habitats

Kenya is home to a pest called the tsetse fly. They can carry and transmit a disease called “sleeping sickness” through their bite. Figuring out where they live is crucial, especially for farmers who spend a lot of time outside.

But tsetse flies cannot swarm a new habitat like other insects do. When they find a suitable place to live, that population of flies is constrained to that area.

Mark Devisser is a doctoral student in the Department of Geography at Michigan State University. His research focuses on the livestock version of the disease, which impacts East Africa’s beef production.

Listen to the podcast here.