Michael Huesemann

Michael Huesemann
Staff Research Engineer - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Ph.D, Chemical Engineering - Rice University
MBA - Arizona State University
Bio

Michael Huesemann is a staff research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Marine Sciences Laboratory) and has conducted both experimental and theoretical research in environmental and marine biotechnology for more than 25 years. Dr. Huesemann’s recent research has focused on climate-simulated culturing of microalgae in LED-lighted and temperature-controlled ponds and photobioreactors, predictive modeling of microalgae growth in outdoor pond cultures, recycling of hydrothermal liquefaction waste nutrients, enhancing air CO2 transfer into microalgal cultures, photosynthetic hydrogen production, and offshore cultivation of macroalgae.

Dr. Huesemann is presently the principal investigator of the ARPA-e NOMAD (Nautical Offshore Macroalgae Autonomous Device) project and also the DISCOVR project, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory consortium endeavor focused on the screening and standardized characterization of industrially relevant high productivity microalgae. He currently also serves as editorial board member of Algal Research.

Project Responsibilities
  • Serves as principal investigator coordinating research activities and reporting.
  • Determination of the maximum specific growth rate as a function of temperature and salinity of TIER I DISCOVR strains using PNNL’s thermal and salinity gradient incubators.
  • Quantification of the areal biomass productivity of TIER II DISCOVR strains under climate simulated conditions in the LEAPS photobioreactors.
  • Field cultivation trials in outdoor test ponds of TIER IV DISCOVR strains at the PNNL Algae Testbed (PAT) in Arizona.
Featured Publications

Gao, S., P. Waller, G. Khawan, S. Attalah, M. Huesemann, and K. Ogden, “Incorporation of Salinity Nitrogen and Shading Stress Factors into the Huesemann Algae Biomass Growth Model”, Algal Research, 35:462-470, 2018.

Huesemann, M., A. Chavis, S. Edmundson, D. Rye and M. Wigmosta, “Climate-Simulated Pond Culturing: Quantifying the Maximum Achievable Annual Biomass Productivity Chlorella sorokiniana (DOE 1412) in the United States”, Journal of Applied Phycology, 30:287-298, 2018.

Huesemann, M.H., P. Williams, S. Edmundson, P. Chen, R. Kruk, V. Cullinan, B. Crowe, and T. Lundquist, “Laboratory Environmental Algae Pond Simulator (LEAPS) Photobioreactors: Validation Using Outdoor Pond Cultures of Chlorella sorokiniana and Nannochloropsis salina”, Algal Research, 26:39-46, 2017.

Edmundson S.J., M. Huesemann, R. Kruk, T. Lemmon, J. Billing, A. Schmidt, and D. Anderson, “Phosphorus and Nitrogen Recycle Following Algal Bio-crude Production via Continuous Hydrothermal Liquefaction”, Algal Research, 26:415-421, 2017

Lammers, P.J., M.H. Huesemann, W. Boeing, et al., “Review of the cultivation program within the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts”, Algal Research, 22:166-186, 2017.

Huesemann, M., T. Dale, A. Chavis, B. Crowe, S. Twary, A. Barry, D. Valentine, R. Yoshida, M. Wigmosta, and V. Cullinan, “Simulation of outdoor pond cultures using indoor LED-lighted and temperature-controlled raceway ponds and PhenometricsTM photobioreactors”, Algal Research, 21:178-190, 2017.

Huesemann, M.H., B. Crowe, P. Waller, A. Chavis, S. Hobbs, S. Edmundson, and M. Wigmosta, “A validated model to predict microalgae growth in outdoor pond cultures subjected to fluctuating light intensities and water temperatures”, Algal Research, 13:195-206, 2016.