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Description
Every drop counts in soilless crop production as the intensive use of fresh water and the release of nutrient-rich effluents (drain water) negatively impacts the environment. Besides, this drain water is a valuable resource because it contains high contents of nitrates and phosphates. ALGACYCLE will re-use drain water to produce microalgae, which will be fractionated into water extracts and residual biomass. These fractions will be used as biostimulants for plants or feeds for aquaculture.ALGACYCLE tackles, in five activities, the challenges of re-using drain waters, namely: (A1) project management; (A2) defining operation parameters for cultivating winter and summer algal strains using drain water; (A3) developing low-cost microalgal production, harvesting and cell disruption approaches at pilot scale; (A4) developing biostimulants and aquafeeds as novel, sustainable (bio-) products; and (A5) evaluating the environmental impact and business potential of the ALGACYCLE innovations.ALGACYCLE joins three Portuguese SMEs (Necton, Hubel Verde and FulgurIT) and three research institutions, from Portugal (Algarve University) and Norway (Nord University and NIBIO) with concomitant goals: (i) Necton aims to replace unsustainable and costly fertilizer for algal production by gratis drain water, and to develop new algal-based products for the biostimulants and aquafeeds market; (ii) Nord University aims to advance research for replacing unsustainable aquafeed ingredients using microalgae; (iii) Algarve University aims to advance research on algal-based biostimulants for crop production; (iv) Hubel Verde aims to improve growth and quality of raspberry and avocado production using algal-based biostimulants; (v) FulgurIT aims to extents expertise towards automatization solutions of microalgal cultivation; and (vi) Nibio aims to deepen research on phytohormones in algal extracts.
Summary of project results
Algacycle is a pioneering project towards a more sustainable circular economy concepts of algal, crop and fish production by recycling nutrients and water from greenhouse drainwater and converting them into high-value aquafeeds for aquaculture and biostimulants for horticulture. Such concept is particular important in the drought threaded Algarve region in Portugal, where water scarcity prevails and excess use of fertiliser by soilless plant producer should be limited to maintain a healthy ecosystem.
Thus, within Algacycle, the environmentally problematic waste streams derived from soilless plant production were used to cultivate two different microalgae species, namely Scenedesmus sp. and Koliella antarctica. To decrease human resource requirement while maximising nutrient uptake and biomass productivity, a cloud-based automation system was also developed. The produced microalgal biomass was disrupted and separated into a water-soluble and a solid fraction. The water-soluble fractions were tested for its phytohormones and biostimulant properties for crops while the solid fraction was used as aquafeeds ingredients replacing unsustainable fish meal or soybean meal.
During Algacycle, 40 Kg of algal biomass were produced, fixing approximately 13 kg nitrates and other nutrients from approximately 40-m3 drainwater, which otherwise would have been discharged unused into the environment. The biomass produced underwent cell disruption, while the solid fraction from both algal species was used in a 10% inclusion rate to replace fish meal in aquafeeds and the watersoluble fraction was used as biostimulant for crop production. Notably, the algae-based aquafeeds have shown to have no negative effect on cultured salmon fish, and the water extracts also did not shown any negative effects on the development of lettuce plants. Given this success story, the Algacycle concept was scaled up in scope of the Horizon Europe REALM project implementing local ecosystems of soilless plant and microalgae production. The promoting company Necton S.A. pursuits using the Algacycle concept in future naturepositive microalgae production approaches.
Summary of bilateral results
The Algacycle project benefitted from having a donor project partners in several ways. The donor project partners provided scientific know-how about phytohormones and fish experiments as well as access to facilities. The donor partners also shared exchange students, enabling experience and knowledge transfer on aquaculture and microalgae topics, which helped to improve the quality and working routines at Portuguese institutions. On the other hand, knowhow about the local production and research approaches on these topics were transferred to the donor partners, enabling them to understand the relevance of the project activities in the field.The main results from a bilateral level were the (i) development of a strong and trustful relationship, which facilitated the exchange of information and feedback; (ii) co-production of several scientific manuscripts, which were published or will be published in near future acknowledging the Algacycle project as well as reports and presentations, which disseminated the project findings and approaches to a wider audience; (iii) organisation of a joint workshop and visit conferences, which increased the visibility and impact of the project; and (iv) learning best practices from each other and challenges, which enhanced their knowledge and understanding of the R&I in microalgal, aquacultural and agricultural context. The Algacycle consortia has identified common areas of interest and potential synergies leading to the continuation of the bilateral collaboration beyond Algacycle in scope of a recently funded project.The partners also agreed to maintain regular communication and follow-up on the project outcomes and scouting new funding opportunities for developing more sustainable microalgae, aquaculture and agriculture industries.