IU Researchers Convert Campus Greenhouse Gas Emissions Into Fertilizer

Alex Eady

Indiana University researchers are collaborating on a new project to repurpose waste and carbon emissions from the environment.

They’re using a pressurized mechanism that captures carbon dioxide from the university’s central heating plant to grow algae. The algae is later converted into bio-fertilizer to be used throughout campus.

Chip Glaholt is a researcher with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He says the goal of the project is to change the way people look at environmental waste.

"The goal is really to better utilize what we call waste on campus and in our society in general," he says. "It’s a real aspect of sustainability to reduce waste.”

Glaholt says the project is funded by an environmental grant from Duke Energy that will help more researchers continue the project in the future.

He says he plans to expand the mechanism to be double its current size and also partner with the IU farm to help them transition to bio-fertilizer, which is a safer organic alternative.