Rounding off the EnAlgae project

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After four years, Swansea staff working on EnAlgae are finalising the closure of the locally led and EU funded research project.

Enalgae European CommissionIn September, the team travelled to Brussels for their very successful close out conference. The event, held within walking distance of the seat of European policy and decision making, attracted around 100 delegates and generated some positive responses.

Now the team are looking forward to unveiling the documentary on the project which has its grand unveiling in the Taliesin on Wednesday 4th November at 5pm. Anyone wishing to attend the documentary launch can register here or turn up on the night.

“We’re now passing on our main conclusion to policy makers in Cardiff, London and Europe in the hope of making a real impact on their view of biofuels and the future of algal research,” said Professor Kevin Flynn. “It may not be what certain industries and politicians want to hear but we feel we need to make the argument that algae for biofuel are a non-starter and will never work.

“We do feel, however, that the technologies we’ve developed during EnAlgae will reap huge rewards in the future when applied to food technology and feeding the planet. This is where the greatest rewards will be found in algal cultivation and exploitation.”

To put EnAlgae into context, over the last four years it has:

  • Reached over 350,000 people through activities focussed on local communities
  • Reached over 15 million people through media coverage
  • Published 29 academic articles: for example Kenny, P. & Flynn, K.J.  2015. In silico optimization for production of biomass and biofuel feedstocks from microalgae. Journal of Applied Phycology, 27, 1, 33-48 and Gerardo, M.L., Oatley-Radcliffe, D.L., Lovitt, R.W.  2014.  Integration of membrane technology in microalgae biorefineries, Journal of Membrane Science, 464, 86-99.
  • Generated 69 incidences of TV or radio coverage

Anyone interested in finding out more about our project outputs can find the details in our 2015 report card.