EVOClean Evolutionarily Adapted Microalgae for Wastewater Treatment

Funding body: FH Aachen

Duration: 1 November 2025 – 30 June 2026
Funding body: Funding: K2 FH Aachen 

Background:

Municipal and industrial wastewater is increasingly contaminated with micropollutants, heavy metals and other persistent contaminants, which often cannot be adequately removed by conventional treatment processes. The stricter requirements of the amended EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (KARL) are creating a growing need for new, efficient and sustainable technologies for wastewater treatment. Furthermore, low concentrations and the high chemical diversity of the pollutants make their analytical detection and assessment more difficult.

Microalgae-based processes represent a promising approach to the removal of pollutants, as they are capable of reducing these pollutants. Some extremophile microalgae are capable of absorbing these pollutants. Furthermore, they exhibit a high tolerance to low pH levels, heavy metals and organic loads, demonstrating great potential for use in industrial and municipal wastewater systems. However, detailed studies on their application are lacking.  

The project:

The project aims to investigate microalgae-based processes for removing micropollutants from industrial and municipal wastewater. The extremophile microalga Galdieria sulphuraria is being used for this purpose. To monitor the degradation process, an analytical method for pollutants found in wastewater is being established in collaboration with the IAP (Prof. Yulia Monakhova) at FH Aachen.

To carry out the experiments, trials are being conducted in shaking flasks and in the BioLector XT from Beckman Coulter using ‘artificial’ wastewater. The BioLector XT is an automated high-throughput fermenter with continuous online monitoring of biomass, pH and oxygen. This allows up to 48 culture batches to be studied in parallel under controlled and reproducible conditions. Both experimental approaches investigate the degradation of pollutants by microalgae.

Objectives:

As part of the project, FH Aachen is contributing to the development of microalgae-based processes for the treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater. Experiments are being carried out in flasks to test the degradation of pollutants. In parallel, automated high-throughput cultivation systems are being established using the BioLector XT, with the aim of cultivating microalgae in high-throughput systems that can then be used for further experiments.

In this series of experiments, the degradation rates of various pollutants and pollutant concentrations are being investigated using microalgae. The analytical investigation of pollutant removal is carried out using spectroscopic and chemometric methods in collaboration with the IAP’s project partners. 

The data obtained will support the development of a sustainable process for removing micropollutants from wastewater and lay the foundations for future implementation.