Investigating turbulent mixing and the associated energetic costs of different components of algae raceways to produce biofuels from wastewater.

Significant research efforts are underway to investigate the use of wastewater as a resource to produce microalgal biofuels and other high-value products. If successful, this will revolutionize the current wastewater treatment industry: what had, until now, been considered an undesirable by-product would become a valuable asset. Currently, large-scale production of micro-algal biomass from wastewater is mostly performed in open raceways. In these systems, in order to achieve high yields, algae need to be kept in suspension in the water column. This is mainly achieved by recirculating the liquid around the raceway to produce mixing. While turbulence is desirable for mixing, it also causes energy losses. One of the main challenges to delivering sustainable large-scale algae production based on low-cost cultivation is thus to minimise the energy requirements of the cultivation system.
This project will develop a detailed understanding of turbulent mixing and the associated energetic costs of different components of algae raceways. This will provide the fundamental knowledge that is missing to optimise mixing at minimal energy cost, and thus considerably improve the feasibility of converting the nutrients available in wastewater into a valuable economic asset in the form of microalgal biomass.

The work will combine the analysis of data from an existing algae raceway with analytical and numerical models describing the transport of suspended solids in water. Data will be collected from an existing large-scale algae raceway in southern Spain to take advantage of high sunshine hours that allow high yields of algal biomass.
We are looking for highly motivated UK candidates with a strong background and interest in engineering hydraulics and fluid mechanics.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Gustavo de Almeida, Water and Environmental Engineering research group, Email: [Email Address Removed].