Algae farming to develop new water treatment concept

(04-01-2010)

To produce algae as biomass based on wastewater streams has a lot of potential. It depends on the quality of the produced algae if they can be used as food or as animal feed. Algae also contain raw materials for producing bioplastics, resins and oils. Moreover, they can be used to recover energy via biodiesel or by direct gasification of biomass.

To benefit this potential, Witteveen+Bos and algae specialist Ingrepro have developed a new process that will farm algae for treating waste water sustainably at companies and water boards. The AlgaePro™ Wastewater Upcycling System (WUS) produces energy and yields sustainable products obtainable from algae. The system upgrades wastewater streams with nitrogen and phosphate (cradle-to-cradle) to create products of economic value. Moreover, a lot of CO2 undergoes fixation and makes the process carbon-neutral.

Witteveen+Bos and Ingrepro signed a letter of intent to develop and optimise the AlgaePro™ concept and to scale it up to a profitable scale in the near future. Witteveen+Bos and Ingrepro will bundle their knowledge of wastewater treatment, energy generation, algae farming technology and the algae sales market. Within the concept Witteveen+Bos will be responsible for issues as engineering and the coordination of research. As Europe's largest industrial producer of algae, Ingrepro will make available its specialised knowledge of farming and marketing produced algae.

Cradle-to-cradle

AlgaePro™ is a cradle-to-cradle concept. This principle regards residual streams such as waste water and organic waste as ‘nutrition’ instead of waste. Algae can transform the waste into high-quality biomass, biodiesel or energy. The two organisations will help water companies and water boards to search for solutions for their waste water problems. An initial field study will start in January 2010 using the AlgaePro™ system on a semi-practical scale.

Ingrepro and Witteveen+Bos intend to use the AlgaePro™ concept to obtain a leading position in the market for sustainable energy generation and processing of residual streams. Algae farming closes the cycle and will boost the sustainability of (Dutch) society.