Professor of Molecular Plant Biology Yagut Allahverdiyeva-Rinne explains how new algae research projects are turning industrial effluent into valuable algae biomass.
The AlgaCircle project, funded by Business Finland, aims to create an innovative circular economy concept that produces food, feed and agrochemicals from microalgae. The project has received over €1 million in funding.
The new AlgaTECH algae production facility at the University of Turku uses greenhouse or industrial waste water to produce ecological and cost-effective algal biomass. The researchers are developing new and suitable uses for algae biomass. The aim is to promote the Nordic bio-industry.
Groundbreaking research has managed to circumvent previous challenges in finding out how microalgae adapt to global warming by studying up to 60-year-old microalgae cells from the Archipelago Sea. Some microalgae form resting cells that sink to the seabed after blooming is over. Researchers have now managed to awaken these dormant cells from sediment cores with different chronological layers that can be dated by geological methods.
The Photosynthetic Microbes team from the University of Turku received over 900 000 € to build a large algae plant for the validation of cultivation processes in the Nordic environment. The team will grow microalgae in drain water from greenhouses to clean water, recover nutrients and lower microalgae production costs.