
Felix Secures Funding to Visit AlgaeCytes
Felix won funding from Phycoclub, AlgaeUK, and BBRSC to attend a site visit to AlgaeCytes Limited, in Sandwich, Kent, who gave a tour of their facilities. He was provided a great opportunity to witness the end-to-end production of omega-3 from microalgae, from strain maintenance right through to the purification of the final product. He is looking forward to applying some of the techniques they use in his PhD research! He also had the chance to present his work on using waste-derived nutrients to address nutrient deficiencies in wastewater. As an alternative to commercial nutrients, waste-derived nutrients can be equally as effective at addressing nutrient deficiencies, with the added benefits of treating multiple waste streams simultaneously and enhancing the production of omega-3.

The group representing UCD Biosystems and Food Engineering won 1st prize in the BISC-E student challenge competition at the national level.
Fangting Bai, Qi Teo, and Anirudh Krishnamurthy Suryanarayanan from UCD School of Biosystem and Food Engineering won 1st prize in the BISC-E student challenge competition at the national level at Maynooth University on 8th March 2024. Their Project was titled "UpcycleAlgae 'Integrated anaerobic digestion and microalgae process for the upcycling of fresh food waste from supermarkets into omega-3 oils'". The team will present at the European Final in Belgium in September 2024.

BioBus – BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre
BioBus was a national campaign by BiOrbic to create awareness of Bioeconomy. The bus toured the entire Ireland from 14th October to 17th November 2024. Aoife Cahill, Prafulla Sabbanwar, and Fangting Bai, members of the UCD Algae group participated in this event. This event displayed the dried biomass rich in products like lipids and proteins grown on brewery waste, which the UCD AlgaeBrew team cultivated.

7th Young Algaeneers Symposium
Dr. Sara Cardoso Esteves presented a poster at this conference.

Research Grant from SEAI
Our Group was recently awarded a €615K research grant from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to investigate the use of microalgae for the valorisation of by-products from anaerobic digestion.