Researchers with ASU’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, directed by Fulton Schools Professor Klaus Lackner, are working with the city of Mesa to turn the byproducts of wastewater treatment into fuel and other useful products. Justin Flory (in picture), the center’s associate director, is managing the project that involves harnessing the way that algae works naturally in the process of breaking down human-produced wastewater. In that process, microalgae takes in carbon dioxide from the waste, which essentially feeds the microalgae and can enable it to help produce useful algae-based biofuels. Flory and other researchers see those biofuels and other uses of algae playing big roles in supporting sustainable sources of energy, as well as helping reduce the negative impacts on the environment from emissions produced by wastewater treatment. (Access to the full content of the Arizona Republic is accessible only to subscribers.)