[Scpg] Algae Miracle Worker Recycles

[eric werbalowsky]

happy holdays permie family

the article below was brought to my attention -- never
knew about this guy, but i bet we all heard about what
he pioneered  -- very big impact and great ideas...a
great embodiment of permy ideals...

btw, i am headed to maui on hanuka (i hear it is also
xmas), do folks have any contacts there to share, to
visit etc.?
i will also try to get to big island to see Lakaea...

where's tommy baldwin lately?

best

ew

W. J. Oswald, 86, Algae Miracle Worker, Dies

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
William J. Oswald, a scientist who pioneered ways to
use algae to address immense human problems -
including treating sewage, increasing food supplies,
generating energy and facilitating voyages into deep
space - died on Dec. 8 at his home in Concord, Calif.
He was 86.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said the University
of California, Berkeley, where Dr. Oswald was a
professor emeritus in civil and environmental
engineering.

Dr. Oswald promised miracles from the humblest of
plants and proceeded to perform more than a few.

He developed a system of ponds in which algae eat and
purify wastewater, and built more than 100 around the
world. The algae could then be harvested using his
patented process as protein-rich food for animals or
people able to ignore its provenance. The leftover
water, now cleansed, could be used for irrigation, as
a coolant for engines and even, with more
purification, for human consumption.

The sludge from the bottom of the pond could be added
to the soil as humus, he advised. Methane gas produced
by the algae could be captured and used. The per-acre
yield of protein is 10 times that of soybeans, and
algae suffer from few of the diseases that affect
other crops. Since algae can do all this work in
seawater, more precious freshwater can be conserved.

"It is technically feasible to apply controlled
photosynthesis to reclaim and reuse our wastes an
indefinite number of times and in so doing to produce
unprecedented quantities of food, water and raw
materials at costs within the economic reach of most
societies," Dr. Oswald said in a speech in 1960.

Many of these concepts were realized in experiments or
actual projects. Dr. Oswald's ingenious idea for
having astronauts take along some algae to treat their
waste, while producing oxygen and water, has so far
been tested only with mice, successfully.

Treatment systems designed by Dr. Oswald or patterned
after his design are now in use in Bolivia, Brazil,
Greece, Mexico and South Africa, as well as in the
United States.

Dr. Oswald was particularly interested in applying his
ideas for simple, affordable, sustainable wastewater
treatment to developing countries. In recent years, he
worked with the government of India to develop a way
to use algae ponds to purify the Ganges River.

In a 1998 article on this Ganges effort, The New
Yorker declared, "Oswald is to algae what Michael
Jordan is to basketball."

This year, Dr. Oswald received a lifetime achievement
prize from the International Society for Applied
Phycology (the branch of botany dealing with seaweed
and algae). In addition, colleagues from around the
world have nominated him for next year's Stockholm
Water Prize.

Dr. Oswald was born in King City, Calif., on July 6,
1919, and grew up on a ranch in Southern California,
where his interest in water, agricultural production
and human health began. As a child, he witnessed the
choking death of a schoolmate from a roundworm
infection caused by poor sanitation.

During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces
and was responsible for food and water sanitation for
one of the D-Day invasion camps. While still in the
Army after the war, he was a hospital administrator
and coordinated the care of patients suffering from
the effects of contaminated water.

He used the G.I. Bill to attend the University of
California, Berkeley, where he earned a degree in
civil engineering. He stayed on to get a Ph.D. in
sanitary engineering, biology and public health in
1967, the same year he joined the Berkeley faculty. He
became a full professor in 1970.

In 2001, Dr. Oswald joined Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory as a senior staff scientist.

Dr. Oswald is credited with developing the advanced
wastewater pond systems technology in which wastewater
passes through a series of ponds to be treated. These
"high-rate ponds" use algae fermentation to produce
oxygen, which purifies sewage. The more common and
much more expensive methods use electromechanical
methods to produce oxygen.

Dr. Oswald, who wore two hearing aids and had an
impish smile, is survived by his wife, Eileen; his
sons, Patrick, of Alamo, Calif., and Michael, of Chula
Vista, Calif.; a sister, Roberta Oswald of King City;
and eight grandchildren.