Algae Tech Takes the Lead in Climate Fight
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is working with cutting-edge technologies that promise the next-generation of carbon capture.
Partnering with Photon Systems Instruments - world leader in the development and manufacture of high-end instrumentation for research in the biological sciences - UTS researchers in the Climate Change Cluster (C3) have pioneered a world-first fully automated robotic system to screen thousands of types of algae each day, supercharging the genetic selection of the traits needed by industries.
Distinguished Professor Peter Ralph, Director of C3 says “The facility operates at the equivalent of 20 scientists working 24/7 on finding ‘super algae’ making it a game changer in the pursuit of using ‘super algae’ to combat climate change. By drastically accelerating the discovery and characterisation of using this advanced tech, we are unlocking enormous potential for industry to quickly utilise ‘super algae’ to decarbonise their manufacturing processes.”
A sense of the scale
The single celled microalgae are grown in "hotels" with each floor of the hotel growing the same species but under different growth parameters.
For each run of the system, there are 4 floors in each of 2 hotels with 6 x 96 well plates on each floor an incredible 4,608 possible samples.
Once grown, they are automatically sent through a series of machines that assess their qualities (also known as traits), and the strain with the highest yield is selected as the elite strain. With machine learning capabilities, the Facility can then recommend the specific growth conditions that optimise the yield of a particular compound or metabolite of interest. This is not GMO, it’s accelerated evolution.
The Green Genie - How does it work?
Professor Long Nghiem, Director of the Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, says “Scientists and engineers have been working to overcome the challenges of achieving carbon capture at scale. The Green Genie uses innovative optical techniques and new filtration technology to make a step-change in the fight against climate change”.
Microalgae is 40 times more efficient than trees at removing carbon from the atmosphere. Scientists and engineers have been working to overcome the main technical challenges of turning this into carbon capture technology at scale.
Green Genie packs a huge amount of surface area into the platform enabling the pumping of additional carbon dioxide and illumination to encourage photosynthesis.
Using innovative optical techniques, Green Genie can achieve 20 times the illumination of a traditional bioreactor and dramatically increased algal growth.
This then utilises a unique separation technology to remove algal solids from the wastewater, producing algal by-products that can be used in various production systems.
Applications
The Green Genie is a modular "plug and play" unit that can fit into a standard six-metre shipping container making it affordable, effective, fast and scalable for direct air carbon capture, wastewater treatment and algae biomass production.
Green Genie captures and converts carbon dioxide into algal biomass, which can be used for biofuel production, chemicals, bioplastics, fertiliser and agricultural feed products.
Green Genie can be integrated into hard-to-abate industries such as power generation, cement manufacture, steelmaking, waste incinerator, wastewater and brewing.
Flue gas emissions from these industries are directed into the Green Genie, where microalgae proliferate and consume carbon dioxide via photosynthesis to biomass and simultaneously releasing oxygen.
Green Genie combines our innovations in illumination, carbon dioxide supply, algal biomass harvesting, and metabolic engineering. It produces high-value biomass from emissions economically and sustainably.
University of Technology Sydney Rankings Among Other Universities
- #1 in the world for AI research
- 1st in Australia (University under 50 years)
- 15th in the world for sustainability overall
- 2nd in the world for clean water and sanitation
- 2nd in the world (Proportion of Research appearing in leading science journals)
- 62nd in the world for graduate employability
This content was paid for and created by University of Technology Sydney. The editorial staff of The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.
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