MotivationRob Malandri and Matt Wessale are both
Geological Engineers at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout their
time at UW they have spent great amounts of time enjoying the Wisconsin
outdoors and appreciating the natural and geological environment that
surrounds
them. This ability to appreciate the
outdoors has made them aware of the growing ecological and physical
problems that
are occurring in the Lake Mendota. Returning
Lake Mendota to its original trophic status is the primary motivation
for the
investigation of the potential of an algae farm in Lake Mendota,
however the
potential to help solve the world’s dependence on fossil fuels by
supplementing
them with biodiesel is an added motivation for this project. Just a few hundred years ago, Lake Mendota could be classified as an olgotrophic lake. Today, due to large amounts of phosphorus that are deposited into the lake due to human activity, the trophic status of the lake has changed. Lake Mendota is now classified as a eutrophic lake. Building the algae farm will reduce the amount of phosphorus in the lake and help return the lake to its original trophic status along with producing biodiesel from the algae harvested from the algae farm.  This picture displays a visual display of blue green algae blooms within Lake Mendota.
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