Renewable energy from wastewater derived microalgae
Duration:
June 2018–July 2024
Funding source:
Queensland Urban Utilities
This project was developed to investigate the use of microalgae from a wastewater industry perspective at the industry partner Urban Utilities.
Project Outcomes
To date this work has developed three major research areas for the use of microalgae from a wastewater perspective. This initial work has been used to seek additional funding for additional projects to further develop the use of microalgae in wastewater treatment.
Funding outcomes from this work include:
- CRC-P project: titled, transforming regional treatment with robust technology
- Advance Queensland Industry Fellowship, titled, the use of algae bacterial flocs for wastewater remediation.
- ARC Industry Fellowship. Titled "Circular Economy", via renewable energy and resource recovery
Other outcomes
- Pilot scale and microalgae culture facility at Urban Utilities Luggage Point treatment plant
- Demonstration scale Plant in the Northern Territory
- Large-scale demonstration algae system at Urban Utilities Helidon treatment plant Lockyer Valley, Queensland
- Several patents are currently being investigated.
- 2024 UQ Early to Mid-Career Industry Engagement award winner
- 2021 winner of the AWA Queensland Branch R&D excellence award for Urban Utilities algae program
- 2017 Finalists in the AWA Queensland Branch for Queensland Urban Utilities algae program
Publications
- Alvi, M., French, T., Cardell-Oliver, R., Keymer, P., Ward., A. (2022) Cost effective soft sensing for wastewater treatment facilities. IEEE Access 10: 55694-55708
- Alvi, M., Batstone, D., Mbamba, C.K., Keymer, P., French, T., Ward, A., Dwyer, J., Cardell-Oliver, R. (2023). Deep learning in wastewater treatment: A critical review. Water Research, 245: 120518
- Herold, C., Ishika, T., Nwoba, E.G., Tait, S., Ward, A.J. Moheimani, N. (2021), Biomass production of marine microalga Tetraselmis suecica using biogas and wastewater as nutrients. Biomass and Bioenergy, 145: 105945 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2020.105945
- Musa, M., Ward, A. J., Ayoko, G. A., Rösch, C., Brown, R., Rainey, T. J. (2020), Single-step dynamic dewatering of microalgae from dilute suspensions using flocculant assisted filtration, Microbial Cell Factories, 19:222 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12934-020-01472-4
- Musa, Mutah, Ayoko, Godwin A., Ward, A. J., Misch, C., Brown, R. J., and Rainey, T. J. (2019). Factors Affecting Microalgae Production for Biofuels and the Potentials of Chemometric Methods in Assessing and Optimizing Productivity. Cells 8 (8).
