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Michael Smith was in Hot Springs the day he decided to change how energy is created.

It was a cold February day. Smith had to watch how he stepped for the snow on the ground. And though he was zipped into a heavy winter coat to ward off the cold, he saw algae — known for its warm-weather growth — surviving in the height of winter in Montana.

The green slime got an idea going in his head. What if the algae could be grown and harvested to break down wood waste from area logging operations and turned into energy?

Two years later, Smith is positive that his company, Algae AquaCulture Technologies of Whitefish, can do just that — assuming it can raise the near-million dollars to set up shop.

Until that happens, Smith is happy to partner with F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. in Columbia Falls to run a prototype that proves the process is not only scientifically viable, but financially as well.

Renewable energy has been making gains in the Flathead for some time. The most popular forms have been wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels and solar water heaters.

What sets AACT’s algae-cellulose method apart is that in addition to producing clean energy from waste, it also creates a nitrogen-rich organic fertilizer that can be used to reforest the state or to ramp up farm production. The high demand for such a fertilizer makes the entire method doubly profitable.

Smith, figures a 4,000-square-foot greenhouse operation could produce a quarter-million dollars worth of fertilizer on its own, providing an alternate revenue stream to keep the lumber company viable throughout its boom-or-bust cycles.

The project, called the Green Power House, is going to cost roughly $1 million dollars to get off the ground, but will provide enough power to run the lumber mill yearround.

Here’s how it works:

Wood chips pulled from Stoltze’s lumber landfill are burned at a high temperature in an oxygen-deprived chamber called an Organic Carbon Engine.

The wood burns down to an organic carbon charcoal known as biochar. Carbon dioxide given off during the process is funneled into a tank along with the waste heat to grow the algae.

The slimy green stuff can double in size in just a day or two and is used to break down more wood in what Smith refers to as his “mechanical cow.”

Known in science circles as an anaerobic bioreactor, the mechanical cow uses more waste heat trapped during the charcoal-creating process to compost the algae-wood mixture. This is where the energy comes from. As the heat and algae break down the wood waste, methane gas — a powerful source of clean energy — is created.

The liquidy aftermath of the composting is then mixed with the biochar to create weed-free organic power fertilizer.

And because the algae tanks will be stored beneath the greenhouse floor, Stoltze could use the available space in the greenhouse to grow fruits and vegetables that could be donated to school lunch programs.

Anyone who’s ever played Madden NFL video games has benefited from Smith’s technical expertise.

Sure, he holds a degree in physics from the University of Utah, but he says it was his experience with video game simulation that led to the creation of AACT more than anything.

Much like in digital simulation, the parameters are always changing.

The process of transforming algae into energy requires careful attention to changes in the weather and to the levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen allowed to mix within the water tank.

Each adjustment changes all the other parameters.

“This is as much hi-tech as it is organic,” Smith said, adding that it’s much less complicated than creating game imagery.

Smith created his first bioreactor in high school.

“I’ve always been sort of a closet activist,” he said.

It began with a trip to “Hamsterdam.”

Then a teenage wannabe rock star, Smith saw the oversized hamster cage sitting unused in his bedroom and wondered if there might be a way to create energy from the waste it contained.

The idea was to create an anaerobic bioreactor which would convert the hamster waste into methane gas which could then be used as a fuel source to create energy — not unlike the way the algae is being used in the Stoltze prototype.

Smith put his high school physics knowledge to use creating the contraption. To test the gas level, he took a match to the flask. Now, most adults know that lighting a match near a gas source isn’t exactly safe, but Smith was a curious kid looking to go where no one had gone before.

He struck the match, igniting the gas and setting off a small explosion that “blew hamster poop all over the walls.”

Alas, the consequences of being a scientist: you win some, you lose some.

“[My mom] was very angry with me,” Smith remembers with a laugh.

Even so, the experience helped shape AACT’s project a few decades later.

“I’ve been a problem-solver more than anything,” Smith said.

If AACT can raise the money for the initial investment, Smith figures they can be in full production at Stoltze in about 18 months.

Currently, his team is looking at state and federal recovery grants to fund the building of the full-size Green Power House. They already have letters of support from Governor Brian Schweitzer and Senator Jon Tester. Former Air Force Lieutenant General Richard Swope, now a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, has also pledged support.

“We know we can replace Stoltze’s boilers with Organic Carbon Engines and make it more efficient,” Smith alleges.

And it’s not only the logging world that can benefit from AACT’s technology, Smith said. His team of scientists can adapt any industry with waste heat into this.

“We’ll change the world, one  mill at a time,” he said.