Student officers and representatives of Sierra Club gathered in Dunn Meadow on Monday to demonstrate alongside a model of a giant hand grasping an inhaler.
Until spring 2009, IU Central Heating Plant struggled to find sufficient funding to help implement more sustainable production methods that would ideally reduce chemical emissions.
In 2009, a press release from the plant indicated it was ready to test new equipment through means of operating coal-fired boilers, as well as fabric filters that are believed to “reduce emissions of particulate matter by as much as 95.5 percent.”
Richard Wagner is director and CEO of a company called Phylein. Wagner’s team began work with IU, using algae to remove traces of carbon dioxide from gas emissions. It is being called “the algae project.”
Wagner, who was unavailable for comment, was conducting research at the plant in order to measure the practicality of recycling carbon dioxide with algae, hence “the algae project.”
“Algae are photosynthetic organisms that naturally absorb CO2,” Wagner said. “In simple terms, through photosynthesis, light energy from the sun is converted to chemical energy in the algae. This chemical energy is used to convert the CO2 absorbed from the air into simple sugars that the algae use as food for energy or as building blocks for other complex molecules or structures. Our goal is to recycle this gas through the algae to produce useful products.”
Students on campus have expressed concern about burning fossil fuels.
When fossil fuels burn, substantial amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted, posing a threat to the respiratory health of those within close proximity such as students on the IU campus.
In a recent statement, Mark Menefee, assistant director for utilities at IU, said the University is in the process of compiling a document in order to provide updates on “the algae project.” The most recent updates are close to three years old.
That was then. So where is IU now?
Two women sporting yellow “Beyond Coal” T-shirts unpacked the inflatable that spanned more than two times their size onto the dew-ridden lawn of Dunn Meadow.
Struggling to handle the inflatable, the women finally managed to secure the piece into the moist ground. White packaging peanuts were scattered around the perimeter of what was to be the giant hand holding an inhaler. A sign folded on the ground next to the box that contained the inflatable read, “Big coal makes us sick.”
The work Coal Free IU has accomplished includes a grant awarded in fall 2010, which allowed for the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Indiana Memorial Union.
“We work with the student Sierra Coalition, which is the youth branch of the Sierra Club,” Coal Free IU President Megan Anderson said. “(Our objective is) to help launch the campaign on our campus because we have a coal plant (on campus). This inflatable inhaler is here because we’re raising awareness of correlation between respiratory health and coal.”
