(Canyon)—Mark Olsen thinks bioengineered baker’s yeast could help diminish the strength of unpleasant odors that typically emanate from manure ponds at commercial animal-feeding operations.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seems to agree.
Olsen, an assistant professor of chemistry at West Texas A&M University, received a $100,000 seed grant from the USDA to pursue a research project called “Bioremediation of Odor Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations.”
Olsen will be joined on the two-year project by collaborators Nabarun Ghosh, assistant professor of biology, and David Parker, associate professor of agriculture and environmental science. That trio, one full-time graduate student and a number of students from the various disciplines will contribute to this laboratory feasibility study, beginning with precise simulation of known odor profiles from concentrated animal-feeding operations.
That will be accomplished using the Division of Agriculture’s new specialized gas chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer-Olfactometer, which measures chemical compounds in gases and was a gift from the National Science Foundation in August 2005.
Next, baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) will be bioengineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP), which is easily traceable because it shows up under ultraviolet light. Various concentrations of yeast expressing GFP will be monitored in synthetic manure lagoon vessels.
“Odors at commercial stockyards are caused by known organic chemicals that are produced by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen,” Olsen said. “The purpose of this project is to significantly reduce offensive odors in manure ponds in a way that is easy, effective and environmentally safe.”
Baker’s yeast is both inexpensive and environmentally friendly, he said.