The combination of circular economy in the environmental and in the technological sector is an opportunity that has hardly been exploited to date and enables considerable synergies for both sides. Up to now, the interests of the technology sector have generally been associated with conflicts in the environmental sector. These conflicts can be minimized and added value generated if concepts based on renewable material and energy production are pursued (e.g. nutrient recovery, chemical source materials, improved water quality). The INTELALGEN project is pursuing this goal by using wastewater-derived nutrients for the production of algal biomass. We are cooperating with the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems (Dr. L. Liisa Rihko-Struckmann) and the Otto von Guericke University, Institute for Mathematical Optimization (Prof. S. Sager) in this joint project.
The subproject “Algae mass cultivation” at UFZ is dedicated to algae production and therefore focuses on algae growth, biomass production and biomass harvesting. Conceptually, this involves two phases:(i) algae growth and transfer of nutrients from the water phase into algal biomass. (ii) Algae harvesting and valorization.