Students in Cascade High School’s Advanced Biology class will use a photosynthetic bioreactor coil to remove excess nutrients from local streams to ensure good water quality, scrub CO2 from the atmosphere while producing more oxygen, and use the algae by-product as biodiesel in Cascade’s school busses. In 1995, Cascade Reservoir—a large man-made, draw-down irrigation impoundment in the central Idaho mountains—was experiencing the effects of extreme cultural eutrophication. The reservoir serves as the center for the local community’s recreation-based economy, and the algae blooms resulting from poor water quality were negatively impacting reservoir use of the town’s livelihood. That year, twenty-two cattle and a number of dogs died from drinking the water. The algae mat was so thick and intense that the smell overwhelmed the entire community. Something had to be done. A group of Cascade High School Advanced Biology students accepted the challenge to improve the water quality of the reservoir. They focused their attentions on an upstream community’s practice of discharging secondary sewage effluent into the river that feeds the reservoir. This group of students, four girls who affectionately called themselves the “Sewage Sisters,” discovered in a National Geographic magazine a cutting-edge technology from England that could help. This technology, the Biocoil, is a photosynthetic bioreactor that uses chlorella algae to remove nutrients from waste streams and discharge clean water back into the environment. After establishing a working relationship with the company in England that developed the Biocoil, the students raised $22,000 in grant funding to build a pilot model and test its efficiency. They designed a 10’ high, 10’ diameter Biocoil with manifolds, pumps, toners and tanks to place at Cascade Sewage Lagoons. Over the next several years, this group and additional students in the Advanced Biology class continued to test the model and engineer small changes to improve efficiency and automation. For example, they redesigned the Biocoil to be used in conjunction with septic tanks for individual homeowners. In 1998, the students presented their findings at the National Science Teacher’s Convention in Los Vegas, Nevada, and work continued on the Biocoil, with new students taking over the project year-by-year. In 2005, the Biocoil students were contacted by Lloyd Godson, a scientist from Australia who was interested in the project, but not for waste water treatment. As a photosynthetic bioreactor, the Biocoil removes nutrients from waste streams using chlorella algae, in the process consuming CO2 and producing oxygen. Dr. Godson asked if the Biocoil design could be adapted to function as a life support apparatus in a self-sustained underwater habitat. Could the Biocoil scrub the CO2 waste from a humans’ breathing and in return provide the human with the oxygen needed to survive? Could it be fed human body wastes and provide clean water in return? If so, perhaps it eventually could be used for long-term space flight. With renewed excitement, the students began raising funds to take the biocoil in a new direction. They raised $30,000 in grants and donations to work with Dr. Godson in the creation of a new biocoil to produce oxygen in his underwater BioSUB (website). For a year, students built and tested several designs in the classroom to determine the best possible model for Dr. Godson’s project. In March 2006, six students traveled to Australia and spent three weeks building a biocoil to be installed in the BioSUB. Dr. Godson spent twelve days underwater in his BioSUB with a portion of his oxygen provided by the biocoil. The students learned a tremendous amount about the biocoil’s capacity and potential, and returned home determined to increase its efficiency. They met with Teacher in Space astronaut Barbara Morgan and presented her with their plans and designs in the hope that she could connect them with members from NASA to continue exploring the biocoil as a life support system. In 2008, the biocoil students decided to expand the project even further. Why couldn’t they pool several environmental issues and use the biocoil as a solution? They wanted to remove excess nutrients from local streams to ensure good water quality, scrub CO2 from the atmosphere while producing more oxygen, and use the algae by-product as biodiesel in Cascade’s school busses, reducing our dependency on foreign oil and reducing the energy cost of the school leaving more resources to be used on educational needs. They partnered with Daniel Hand, PE energy specialist with AltaRock Energy, Inc, Ben Lucher PHD Algae Specialist, Stan Barnes, CEO Ruby Fuels and others to see if they can expand the functions of the new Biocoil, a Photosynthetic Bioreactor will use sewage waste streams as nutrients for chlorella algae. Chlorella on the process of growing and reproducing using the wastes will undergo Photosynthesis using mostly sun light. In the process of photosynthesis air rich in CO2 will be pumped into the chamber allowing the chlorella to incorporate the carbon into new biomass and produce oxygen for the environment. The excess algae will be siphoned off and the lipids extracted and processed into Biodiesel. The leftover algae biomass may be fermented to produce alcohol or used as animal feeds of organic fertilizer or all three. We are confident we can make progress because many of our goals have a long history of success and the students have always been aware of the greasy foam from the biocoil in the past. We now see a way to use this greasy by production a new way