How we can supercharge algae to speed up wastewater treatment in Australia

He’s been working on “all things algae” for close to 20 years now and is just about to jet off to Spain to share his work for Urban Utilities and The University of Queensland on the worldwide, water stage.

Say hello to Algae Research Specialist Andrew Ward , who leads our $5 million research with UQ into how we can supercharge algae to speed up wastewater treatment in Australia.

It’s been five years since Andrew pitched ‘algae’ during an innovation hour, which secured our then CEO’s support and put into motion making the pitch a fully funded project.

Our weather is “beautiful one day and perfect the next,” making it ideal for algae growth. Taking full advantage of that seemed to be a missed opportunity in Andrew’s eyes so he raised it with our Head of Innovation, Colin Chapman .

While it has a bad rep for rapidly growing and ruining underwater ecosystems (known as algal blooms), algae also produce half the world’s oxygen and consumes more carbon dioxide than trees.

It’s not a new way to treat wastewater in regional and rural areas, but traditionally it’s been a slow process, Andrew explains.

“Now, we’ve tested a way for algae to purify water five times faster, making it much more environmentally sustainable and cost effective, so it provides real promise for regional treatment plants right across the country,” he recognises.

What makes what we’re doing different? Andrew adds:

“Urban Utilities is at the forefront in using and developing new algae biotechnologies at this scale globally.”

And Andrew is the just the expert to get us there. Growing up working on a fish farm, his experience and fascination with algae grew fast from a young age – from Aquaculture at TAFE to his undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and ‘how wastewater can be purified by natural green technologies.’

Algae remains front of his focus now:

“You never know everything about algae, there’s always something new to learn every day – about what you can do and how it reacts.”

Plus, there’s so many ways algae can be used beyond cleaning wastewater, from plastics, running shoes, fertilisers and even jet fuel.

So, what’s next for algae and Andrew? He’s just been awarded one of 50 Australian Research Council (ARC) ’s Industry Research Fellowship grants to pursue the next chapter of what algae can do. We’ll be sharing more on this once this research is underway.

Andrew’s advice for others looking to follow in his footsteps?

“Get involved, have a go. Discover nature and what it can do.”

All the best for what’s next in this algae anthology Andrew!