Alongside the stainless steel brewing tanks at Young Henrys in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Newtown is another kind of vat – a green-glowing, 400-litre algal bio-reactor. Inside, 20 trillion cells of microalgae are at work absorbing CO2 and producing the same amount of oxygen as a hectare of bushland.
It’s a neat match: while the yeast in the brewing process takes in oxygen and sugar and produces CO2, the microalgae in the reactor takes in CO2 and produces oxygen and a sugar substrate.
“It’s like we’re installing a mini-forest on the brewery floor,” says Dr Leen Labeeuw, a biotechnologist with the Climate Change Cluster (C3) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
Young Henrys co-founder Richard Adamson, left, Dan Hampton and Oscar McMahon with one of the bioreactors.
Young Henrys co-founders Oscar McMahon and Richard Adamson say they hope the research project, funded through Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, will lead to brewing becoming a carbon-neutral industry, with the technology also adapted to other businesses here and around the world.
“We were inspired by the work the C3 group were doing and wanted to get involved,” Adamson says. “We thought it would be worth exploring how microalgae could work in a brewing operation to lower our carbon footprint.”
“We’d like to get to the point where we have a CO2 catchment system internally and it would basically be a closed loop within the brewery,” McMahon adds. “We’ve still got a fair way to go but once we’ve got it bolted down we definitely would like other breweries to run with it.”
C3 Executive Director Professor Peter Ralph says the work with Young Henrys shows we can address the climate emergency using technology that’s readily available. “Algae offers many solutions,” he says.
C3 is working on a range of uses for algae as a new, sustainable raw material for what are now petroleum-based products. This would have tremendous benefits for people, planet and potentially profit.
Bioproducts researcher Dr Janice McCauley explains that algae have three main chemical building blocks: protein, carbohydrates (sugars), and lipids (oils). “With microalgae in particular we can manipulate the regulatory pathways so we can accumulate one or another of these building blocks – so we can use algae to create fuel, food and other products.”
Among many other things, algae can produce oil for energy and other products like oil/protein/starch-based bioplastics, along with sugars and other biochemicals for skincare. The protein can also be used for meat alternatives and the oil for an algal-based Omega-3. Microalgae are also an excellent platform for high-value medical compounds and pharmaceuticals, Dr McCauley says.
The challenge – and the opportunity – is achieving the sort of scale and efficiencies needed for viable products and industries. So, alongside the research, the industry-focused NSW Deep Green Biotech Hub based at UTS is working with entrepreneurs and existing businesses to help them launch or work with algae biotechnologies.
I really believe the potential for algae’s use in a sustainable future is limitless.
— Professor Peter Ralph
Carbon capture via microalgae is something almost any business could adopt, says Deep Green Biotech Hub’s Manager, Dr Alex Thomson, and widespread carbon capture and re-utilisation would have a major, positive impact on the climate emergency.
Professor Ralph says there are “massive” market opportunities. “I really believe the potential for algae’s use in a sustainable future is limitless,” he says. “Algae can play a pivotal role in Australia’s clean energy future as we move away from petroleum-based products. The high-value opportunities in medicine, food and nutraceuticals are exciting and tantalisingly close.”
Video: Amazing Algae: Harnessing biology for a sustainable future
This is the amazing story of an ancient and little known organism that has the potential to transform the way we live, produce and consume.
Algae are the earliest ancestors of all plants, first appearing around 2.5 billion years ago.
Since then they have diversified to somewhere between 30 000 to 1 million different species, coming in all different shapes and sizes.
Microalgae are tiny cells, invisible to the naked eye and smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
Macroalgae are more complex and made of many cells - with some species, like kelp, reaching lengths of nearly 60m.
Anywhere there is water, algae can grow. They are abundant in the oceans and in rivers, lakes and streams.
Most algae are photosynthetic, which means they use the sun’s energy to turn water and carbon dioxide in the air into sugar for energy.
Algae are the forests of the ocean, and collectively produce up to 50% of the Earth’s oxygen - you can thank algae for every second breath you take.
Just like plants, algae convert the sugars from photosynthesis into 3 important products to build their cells - protein, carbohydrates, and oils. .
But they can do this much faster, with some species able to double in size in just 24 hours.
Furthermore, algae only needs a fraction of the land area and water to grow the same amount of protein in a steak or a piece of tofu.
This means algae doesn’t compete for land or precious resources.
Algae are efficient and sustainable little biofactories, and scientists and business are exploring algae alternatives for a variety of industries - including food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, animal feed for livestock and aquaculture, pigments, fertiliser, bioplastic for packaging, and materials for clothing and footwear.
Algae can even utilise waste streams to grow - including excess nutrients from wastewater and captured carbon dioxide from industry.
In this way, algae can create products and processes that are carbon neutral, climate friendly, sustainable and better for the health of communities and the environment.
A greener, brighter future is possible with algae.
To learn more visit us at the Deep Green Biotech Hub.
Know your algae
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Algae is 3.5 billion years old, making them among the oldest living things on the planet.
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Scientists estimate there are anywhere between 30,000 and 1 million species of algae on Earth.
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Algae live in a variety of conditions, from the cold icy waters of Antarctica, to mountain-top lakes and snow, to tropical rain forests.
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There are two main types of algae. Macroalgae come in the form of kelp and seaweed. Microalgae are tiny, microscopic plants that can grow in fresh water or saltwater.
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Each millilitre of naturally occurring microalgae contains about 5 million cells or individual plants.
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Algae produce half of the world’s oxygen, via photosynthesis.
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Algae uses a fraction of the water used to produce the equivalent amount of product from a soy crop.
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Algae can grow up to 10 times faster than land plants.
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Algae is up to five times more efficient than trees at absorbing carbon.
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A 400-litre bag of algae produces as much oxygen as a hectare of Australian forest.
Sources:
Research team
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Director, Climate Change Cluster -
Research Associate, Climate Change Cluster -
Research Associate, Climate Change Cluster
Faculty and research centre
- Faculty of Science
- Climate Change Cluster
- NSW Deep Green Biotech Hub
Funded by
- Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Innovation Connections Program
