Innovation project

Our team (TeamSmartBots) brainstormed various problem statements and narrowed down on preventing Harmful Algae Blooms (HAB). HABs are a significant environmental problem that affects a wide range of water areas, including oceans, lakes, ponds, and even smaller bodies of water. These blooms can cause serious harm to aquatic ecosystems, impacting human health, recreational areas, drinking water sources, ocean exploration, oxygen depletion, and fisheries worldwide. HABs are fueled when nutrients run in the water due to nutrient runoff: High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in water bodies, primarily from agricultural runoff, urban sewage, and industrial discharge in warmer months, cause outbursts in HABs [6].

Impact of HABs

HABs can occur in both freshwater and saltwater environments, causing harm through various routes of exposure [5]. The impacts are caused by toxins produced by HABs, primarily killing fish, sickening humans, harming wildlife through ingestion, causing severe damage through environmental degradation, and significantly altering the food web ecosystem. The state of Ohio declared an emergency for the City of Toledo as algal toxins exceeded safety thresholds, sickening 110 people and impacting 500,000 people without drinking water for three days. HABs are growing in prevalence, affecting the overall ecosystems and significantly costing our economy. 

The economic impact of algae blooms can be categorized into health costs, fisheries costs, tourism, and mitigation costs [4]. Communities across the United States have spent over $1 billion since 2010 dealing with harmful algal bloom (HAB) outbreaks, with Ohio alone accounting for $815 million in documented expenses [2]. The economic impact extends beyond direct treatment costs, affecting property values, tourism, and commercial fishing, potentially costing communities billions annually[2]. Additionally, 12 cities spent nearly $289 million solely on water treatment, highlighting the substantial financial burden HABs place on water infrastructure and public health [2]. “With the 2018 Florida red tide bloom causing tourism losses of approximately $2.7 billion, it emphasizes the need to view HABs as potential billion-dollar disasters,” reveals UCF Rosen College Study Reveals the Economic Impact of Florida’s Red Tide on Tourism [3]. The study also states, “Substantial losses occurred in Southwest and Southeast Florida, paying to $1.27 billion and $1.35 billion, respectively” [3].

Solutions to Prevent HABs

There are various solutions available to prevent, control, and treat HABs. The solutions can be categorized into physical, biological, chemical, and environmental controls [6]. Physical control involves manually removing the algae or spraying clay to move the algae cells to the bottom of the water body. Biological processes involve the release of one organism to control another. For example, we can introduce amoeba to infect HABs. But they cause damage to the environment. The third category is chemical treatment, which involves using harmful chemicals unsuitable for the environment. The final category is environmental control, which uses changing ecological parameters to prevent algae growth. Some examples of these solutions include reducing nutrient run-off, using ultrasonic devices, using nanobubbles, and using water treatment. Most of the solutions require significant resources or are harmful to our environment. We chose nanobubble because it was more effective and had no significant side effects. Nanobubble technology uses tiny air bubbles that can stay for weeks or months in water due to the high surface area of <200nm air bubbles [9]. These nanobubbles with oxygen can kill unwanted algae, destroy toxins, and boost oxygen levels [8].

Our Solution

We researched various solutions available in the market and made some requirements that our innovation should follow. We decided to include solar power in our design to make it portable, save energy, make it affordable, and work from small ponds to large lakes or oceans. For large areas, we propose using multiple units to create a mesh (just like Starlink satellite mesh to cover large areas). We decided on solar as algae grow primarily in warmer months, and we have abundant sunlight in the warmer months to generate enough power to create nanobubbles. Our prototype Solar Mesh Algae Removal Technology (SMART) is shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 - Components of Solar Mesh Algae Removal Technology

The prototype in Figure 1 uses four significant components besides the 100W solar panel. The solar power controller is used to regulate the power. A motor uses 48W and can pump 1100 gallons per hour to pump water and air. The hydrodynamic cavitation device is used to generate nanobubbles. Hydrodynamic cavitation is the process of creating nanobubbles through the change in pressure. This device is an hourglass-shaped tube through which water flows at high speeds. When the water flows through this tube, the pressure will change at the narrow end, causing nanobubbles to be produced at the end. These bubbles will stay on the water's surface, destroying HABs. The visualization of our prototype is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 - Visualization of our prototype

References

[1] “The SUBMERGED Season - FIRST LEGO League, an educational STEM program for everybody between 4 and 16,” First-lego-league.org, 2024. https://www.first-lego-league.org/en/2024-25-season/the-submerged-season.

[2] A. Schechinger, “The High Cost of Algae Blooms in U.S. Waters | EWG,” www.ewg.org, Aug. 26, 2020. https://www.ewg.org/research/high-cost-of-algae-blooms

[3] R. Wells, “UCF Rosen College Study Reveals Economic Impact of Florida’s Red Tide on Tourism,” University of Central Florida News | UCF Today, Jan. 23, 2024. https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-rosen-college-study-reveals-economic-impact-of-floridas-red-tide-on-tourism.

[4] Florida Department of Health, “Harmful Algal BloomsEconomic Impacts” https://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/aquatic-toxins/_documents/economic-impacts.pdf.

[5] “Impacts – Harmful Algal Blooms,” Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms, U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms. https://hab.whoi.edu/impacts/ 

[6] University of New Hampshire, “Causes of harmful algal blooms: Understanding the factors behind the phenomenon,” College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, Nov. 22, 2023. https://colsa.unh.edu/blog/2023/11/causes-harmful-algal-blooms-understanding-factors-behind-phenomenon

[7] U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms, “Control and Treatment – Harmful Algal Blooms,” U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms, 2019. https://hab.whoi.edu/response/control-and-treatment/

[8] “Using nanobubbles to kill harmful algal blooms,” cfaes.osu.edu. https://cfaes.osu.edu/newsletter/may-june-2023/cfaes-impact-may-june-2023/using-nanobubbles-kill-harmful-algal-blooms

• [9] J. N. Meegoda, S. Aluthgun Hewage, and J. H. Batagoda, “Stability of Nanobubbles,” Environmental Engineering Science, vol. 35, no. 11, pp. 1216–1227, Nov. 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1089/ees.2018.0203.