Dr Alla Silkina, from the Department of Biosciences in the College of Science, is in charge of delivering a network of pilot scale algal culture facilities, one of the project’s three work packages. She will be travelling to Delft in the Netherlands to deliver a talk at a world-first event.

UNESCO-IHT is holding its first ever international seminar on algal technologies for wastewater treatment and resource recovery.

Dr Silkina will deliver a talk on 'A cost-benefit analysis for the processing of different waste sources, with relation to algal biomass productivity, biochemistry and potential value’.

“I’m extremely happy and proud to be involved in this event, linked as closely as it is to the work we’ve been carrying out here at Swansea as part of the EnAlgae project,” said Dr Silkina.

“Processing wastewater in a cost efficient way is something which is going to increase in importance in the future.

“We’ve been conducting experiments here using aquaculture waste, cattle waste and municipal waste. Each has been investigated in terms of their nutrient ability for algal cultivation in order to produce algal biomass with particular valuable biochemical characteristics. 

“And our findings indicate that all used waste sources could be utilized for algal cultivation. Our experiments have found that the most economically viable waste source is anaerobically digested municipal waste as this requires minimal processing and minimal energy input and results in high algal growth rates and a useful high quality algal product.

“So I hope the audience in Delft finds it interesting and informative.”

The following week Dr Bob Lovitt, senior lecturer in the College of Engineering, who has been working on the downstream processing elements of the project, will travel to Southampton.

There, he’ll deliver a talk to the Anaerobic Digestion Network on algae and anaerobic digestion as a key area of study by the EnAlgae project.

“The invite to speak at this event is welcomed and I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences on EnAlgae,” said Dr Lovitt.

The EnAlgae project is led by Swansea University and funded by the European Union under the INTERREG IVB North West Europe programme. EnAlgae unites experts and observers from 7 EU member states to determine the potential benefits of algae as a future sustainable energy source.

Anyone wishing to learn more about the EnAlgae project can visit www.enalgae.eu.