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About the project TransAlgae

September 4 |  2019

Algae biomass for a sustainable future
– final seminar

At our final conference the results from the project TransAlgae were presented. It was a day about how to cultivate, harvest, extract, transform and all about the value for the society from Scandinavian micro- and macro algae.

Place: P-O Bäckström, SLU, Umeå  

Programme

10.00 Welcome

KEY NOTE SPEAKER – FREDRIK GRÖNDAHL
Head of Department for Sustainable Development Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED) at the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH Stockholm

KEY NOTE SPEAKER – LUISA GOUVEIA
Head of Autotrophic Microalgae GroupBioenergy Unit, National Laboratory of Energy and Geology (LNEG), Lisbon Portugal

CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING – 1
Algae cultivation at high latitudes: obstacles and opportunities, Francesco Gentili, SLUEnvironmental benefits of microalgae biomass  production, Carolin Nuortila, University of Vaasa

12.00 LUNCH

13.00 CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING – 2

Factors influencing the biomass production of the green macroalga Ulva lactuca from the high latitudes in North Norway and its use for a pre-commercial application. Ralf Rautenberger, NIBIOIndoor cultivation in bags and two different ways of harvesting and Computer vision as a method to identify algae, Andrea Gambardella, Nattviken

EXTRACTION
Characterisation of algal biomass, Calle Niemi, SLU

COFFE AND EXHIBITION

TRANSFORMATION
Algae Hydrothermal liquefaction and carbonization, Mid Sweden University

Feasibility of Algae as a Substrate for Nordic Biogas Production, Andreas Willfors, Novia UAS

SOCIO – ECONOMIC VALUE (SYSTEM ANALYSIS)
Amazing Algae and the Road Ahead, Petra Berg, University of Vaasa

17.00  END

Contact: Francesco.Gentili@slu.se or Barbro.Kalla@biofuelregion.se 

September 12 |  2018

Open seminar at University of Vaasa

Around 70 people attended the TransAlgae open seminar at University of Vaasa. It included presentations from all project partners and tasting of freshly harvested macroalgae from Bodö. View the presentations below or the whole seminar by klicking here.

March 22 |  2018

Networking at Vaasa Energy Week

Andreas Willfors and Thomas Andersson, Novia UAS, represented TransAlgae at the exhibition Vaasa Gas Exchange 2018 during the Energy Week. The stand was shared by Novia UAS and Åbo Akademi University. During the day, many infosheets from the project were handed out, and people were interested in the feasibility of algae cultivation. The possibility to start cultivating algae in different locations was discussed the most. The project was also mentioned during a presentation by University of Vaasa during the seminar that was a part of the exhibition. The event focuses on natural gas and biogas in all formats for power generation, transport and shipping. Novia UAS investigates biogas from algae.

November 15 |  2017

TransAlgae winner of the Arctic Award

TransAlgae received the Arctic Award in the category sustainable use of resources at the Interreg Nord conference in Luleå November 15. Ida Norberg, BioFuel Region and Francesco Gentili, SLU represented the TransAlgae project.

The motivation:

There is a need of cost effective and sustainable ways to clean waste streams of different sources. Algae are not use in the arctic region for this purpose. The project will contribute to increase the knowledge of algae and develop the algae sector as a part of the bioeconomy. TransAlgae contributes in a very clear way to the main criteria innovation, impact and focus. The focus is cultivation of algae in the Nordic conditions which means a colder and darker climate in the winter season. The developed cultivation system should be robust towards temperature variations during day and night. One important thing is to develop cultivation in different waste streams with the purpose of removing nutrients and carbon dioxide from the waste in a sustainable way. A key issue for investment is the economic sustainability of the algae after cultivation. Therefore, the project will investigate different possible usages of algae after harvesting with the purpose of finding a sustainable value chain with a good market potential.

– We are very happy! This shows that our project is on time and it gives us more energy to together find innovative solutions to the problems we have today, says Ida Norberg, BioFuel Region.

The Arctic Project Awards 2017 competition was launched on the 11th August and closed on the 6th October 2017. The award has been designed to highlight exceptional projects focusing on topics of particular relevance to the Arctic area. The competition was open to projects funded by the NPA or NPP, Interreg Botnia-Atlantica, Interreg Nord and Kolarctic CBC programmes.

OCTOBER 5 |  2017

Algae open seminar in Bodö

The TransAlgae project arranged an interesting Algae open seminar in Bodö at October 5, 2017. Michael Y. Roleda acted as moderator and presentations from both the TransAlgae project and from other research and networking activities in Nordland were presented.
Program Algae open seminar Bodö October 5 2017

SEPTEMBER 20-21 |  2017

Conference in gender equality

Almost all of the TransAlgae partners met and participated in the gender equality education and conference in Umeå.

SEPTEMBER |  2017

Young international students learned about TransAlgae at Novia

A group of young students with teachers from European Darksky Protectors visited Novia UAS within an Erasmus project. They were introduced to the TransAlgae project and especially the research on biogas from algae by Andreas Willfors. The laboratory for measurements on the biomethane potential was shown for the students. Nina Åkerback also showed the pilot unit for phosphorous recovery which is used in another BA-project; NP-balans.

SUMMER |  2017

Visit from Univeristy of Vaasa at SLU

In order to further develop the cultivation of microalgae at the Univeristy of Vaasa and to share knowledge, a one day visit at SLU was arrenged. The microalgae cultivation pilot units at Dåva (Umeå Energi) and Vakin were visited as well as the laboratory facilities at SLU. Sandra Lage presented her work on extraction of lipids from microalgae and the day was finalized with some valuable discussions.

JUNE 18-23 |  2017

International Society for Applied Phycology, Nantes

A poster was presented by Michael Y. Roleda (NIBIO) at the conference.

JUNE 10-14 |  2017

European Biomass Conference & Exhibition, Stockholm

TransAlgae-project was represented through Francesco Gentili (SLU) with a poster presentation. The conference was very fruitful and new contacts for future collaborations was established.

MAY 10-11 |  2017

Arctic Clustering Event in Skellefteå

The Arctic Project Clustering Event proved itself to be a fruitful platform for new collaborative ideas between projects tackling various “Arctic” challenges.  TransAlgae was represented by SLU, Vasa University, NIBIO and Nattviken Invest. Francesco (SLU) presented TransAlgae in the Bio-Economy Workshop, together with NP-Balans, RENEPRO, WAX, URCHIN and GREBE projects. The other three workshop groups were Energy efficiency, E-Health and Entrepreneurship. The main idea behind this clustering event was to bring together actors from 4 different programs (Interreg Botnia-Atlantica, Interreg Nord, Northern Periphery and Arctic programme and Kolarctic CBC) and create more awareness about possible overlapping projects, thus enhancing the efficiency of cooperation. One main reason is the current under-investment in the Arctic region and the EU expectations of results from ongoing programmes and how to make sure to secure enough funding-money in the next EU Investment period starting 2020. TransAlgae received a lot of positive interest and we found several promising collaborative projects with whom we will continue the dialogue, a first outcome might well be a clustering event organized by us.

Spring |  2017

A new season for the algae cultivation in TransAlgae

Microalgae is once again cultivated in the pilot unit after the winter season. At SLU, Francesco Gentili is working with microalgae that grows in waste water from Umeå sewage plant. After harvested, the algae biofuel potential is investigated. In the green house, in an open photobioreactor, about 800 litres of waste water is slowly mixed while the algae grow by taking up nutrients and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. About once a week, algae are harvested by using centrifugation and further analysed. In TransAlgae, some algae have been sent to Novia in Vasa for investigation of the biogas potential and some algae have been sent to Mid Sweden University for investigating the algal potential as a biofuel.

During the winter time, the biomethane potential has been initially investigated at Novia. Andreas Willfors and Thomas Andersson has recieved microalgae from SLU and macroalgae from NIBIO for digestion experiments. The results from the first experiments are most promising for macroalgae. Coming up is to test different pre-treatment methods and co-digestion of algae with other substrates. Read more about biomethane potential in InfoSheet No3 and No4.

Harvesting experiments of micro algal biomass has been done at Univesity of Vaasa. Liandong Zhu has written two InfoSheets (No2 and No5) that explains some of his work about harvesting.

The equipment for investigating the biomethane potential.

MAR 23 |  2017

Algae seminar in Vaasa

Welcome to attend the Algae seminar arranged by TransAlgae at the University of Vaasa, Building Fabriikki, lecture room F362A (3rd floor)

TransAlgae kutsu seminaariin 20170323

MAR 23 |  2017

TransAlgae at Vaasa Energy Week

A lot of people discussed with us at our stand on Vaasa Energy Week.

MAR 22 |  2017 

Project meeting in Vaasa.

FEB 7  |  2017 

Seminar at Kustaktionsgruppen in Vaasa

The TransAlgae project presented at a seminar arranged by Kustaktionsgruppen in Vaasa.

”Hur kan vi stärka fiskerinäringen i Bottniska viken?”

Material can be found here.

Autumn  |  2016

Algaea cultivation and harvesting

Sweden

A new cascade cultivation unit has been built in Härnösand, by Nattiviken Invest.
It has been up and running cultivating microalgaes during the summer 2016. It is now being optimized for the next cultivation season that starts in late spring.

The cultivation unit built by SLU

SLU in Umeå has built a new photobioreactor for cultivation of micro algae at VAKIN (the waste water company in Umeå). Algae is cultivated in waste water. The harvested microalgae is going to be digested at Novia to investigate the biogas potential.

Finland

Cultivation of microalgae in laboratory scale has also been started at University of Vaasa. Different harvesting methods is being investigated.

Norway

At NIBIO in Bodö, macroalgae has been cultivated and harvested in a tank system. Wild grown macroalgae has also been harvested and its biogas potential will be tested at Novia.

Macroalgae in Bodö

OCT 25-26  |  2016 

Project meeting in Härnösand.

JUNE 2  |  2016 

Project kick-off in Holmsund.

 
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