Gene Tracy guided a raft ashore at Lake Matoaka. But unlike the colonists who settled this land, his quarry wasn’t food or shelter — it was algae.
The College of William and Mary, in collaboration with industry and other universities, plans to turn the fish-killing algae into biodiesel fuel for cars, airplanes, and just about anything else that guzzles gasoline.
On Thursday, Tracy, a physics professor, along with other university officials and a handful of students, worked to assemble the machine — or flume — tasked with the job.
A rectangle-shaped floating dock with its midsection removed, the flume acts as a channel that will trap nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients that form oxygen-deprived dead zones in the lake and Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“Think of it as a rain-gutter-type device,” said Karl Kuschner, the university’s research scientist leading the effort. “We’ll be creating a 40-foot long hole in the water.”
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