U of A engineering student develops a device to help predict algae blooms

Jordan Eleniak, a Métis student who grew up in Lac La Biche, doesn't recall a summer without a blue-green algae bloom. He designed a bacterial fuel cell to help communities forecast them. 

Blue-green algae are also known as cyanobacteria. Blue-green algae blooms are a natural phenomenon, but when they reach excessive levels, they can become toxic to the environment and to aquatic animals. 

This summer, Eleniak had a chance to apply his engineering skills and design a device that detects and forecasts algae blooms when he interned with the National Research Council. 

The process of detection focuses on measuring the microbial activity inside a hydrogen fuel cell, said Adam Bergren, an acting director of research and development at the NRC nanotechnology research centre, who supervised and mentored Eleniak during the summer. 

The cell takes bacteria and microorganisms natural to the surrounding environment, said Eleniak in a video released by the University of Alberta. 

That bacteria is placed inside the hydrogen fuel cell, and the cell is then placed into the water.  

When the environment around the cell is healthy and the bacteria metabolize properly, the bacteria produce a little bit of hydrogen, powering the fuel cell, Bergren said. If the environment is unhealthy or if there is cyanobacteria present, the bacteria in the fuel cell produce less hydrogen.

Eleniak used specialized software to design a 3D-printed fuel cell so that bacteria could be inside it. 

"You can print out a cell and basically assemble it more or less within a day," Bergren said. 

The cell was tested in Prince Edward Island, where it remains today and is generating data. 

"I had quite high confidence that it was going to work," Eleniak said. 

"But to actually see it working for the very first time was pretty incredible. There was some relief, but there was also some big excitement there as well, especially when [I] started seeing the different data points on the screen." 

It took just a few months to design the cell. Eleniak started with the NRC in May, and by the end of July he was able to fly to PEI and install the system at a test site. 

"We're hoping to correlate the data alongside traditional sensors to learn more about the data that it is giving us, and hoping to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to help create some models to detect what's going on in the water," Eleniak said. 

The goal is to be able to forecast algae blooms before they happen. 

Eleniak hopes these cells can be produced and sent to Indigenous communities — and anyone else who needs them. 

Eleniak did an internship with the NRC as a part of his participation in the I-STEAM Pathways program. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. I-STEAM is run by the University of Alberta.

It is designed to give Indigenous undergraduate students from any recognized post-secondary institution an opportunity to experience environment-related research under the supervision and mentorship of an experienced researcher at the U of A or at the NRC. 

"The objective is to ideally to have the students fall in love with the fact that they too can do research, that this is something that they can do, that they can consider doing advanced degrees," said Makere Stewart-Harawira, a professor at the faculty of education at the U of A, who is one of I-STEAM's co-leaders. 

"Indigenous people are so grossly under-represented in these areas. Our goal is to endeavour to address this," she said.