Hi my name is David Moheimani. I'm an applied phycologist leading Murdoch University algae R&D research. I work very closely with Harry Butler Institute and also Environmental and Conservation Sciences discipline at Murdoch University.

So, we have plants in the world and we have algae. Algae are much simpler plants. As a matter of fact, plants are evolved from one group of algae. One advantage of algae is that they are capturing a lot of carbon dioxide into their biomass, and for every molecule of carbon dioxide that they're capturing, they're releasing one molecule of oxygen back to the atmosphere.

Also, they have a lot of very interesting compounds inside of the biomass, which also is one of my interests. When it comes to algae, microalgae and their cultivation, in my group we are looking at three concepts when it comes to algae. 

One is wastewater treatment, which is more a “waste to profit. 

Rather than just cleaning the waste, we are converting the waste to profitable products. Wastewater treatment is very expensive, and also most of the wastewater treatment processes are not necessarily doing very good when it comes to removing inorganic nitrogen, and inorganic phosphate.

However, algae by nature are very good in taking up those two molecules. So, we use this ability of microalgae to take up these nutrients to grow on the waste. 

The output of this is the microalgae biomass, clean water, energy, and anaerobic digestion will convert organic waste to biomethane. 

We can also use the biomass for fertiliser, animal feed and we are looking at converting that to produce bioplastics. 

We are also very interested in producing high value products from saline microalgae.

Especially in a state such as WA, we have issues of having access to agricultural land and also fresh water. We do have a series of algae that can grow in a very wide range of salinity, going from seawater which is 3.5 salinity, all the way to saturation. 

Instead of using agricultural land and also fresh water, we can use seawater and we can also recycle the water through the process, meaning that we are not wasting the fertilisers.

And this would allow us to produce the biomass for producing high value products. So we are specifically interested in pigments, and also looking at fish oil, which is produced by algae, not the fish. 

This fish oil and the pigments can generate significant revenue for whoever is getting into this particular market.

There are two types of cultivation systems for algae. There are open ponds and closed photobioreactors.

One of the advantages of closed photobioreactors, is that we can get much more productivity from microalgae. One of the problems with the closed photobioreactor is the fact, that these systems by nature heat up fairly quickly, and the reason is that we contain the liquid in a fairly enclosed system. 

We spend a lot of time and effort to develop a system which no longer required cooling down. And that is the outcome of the work that we've done in the last 10 to 15 years. 

There are a number of potential viable applications for algae. In my view one of the most important one is food. And what we need on this planet is to produce a cheap source of protein for the future generations. 

The algal biomass that we generate and grow on the wastewater, contains up to 50% protein.

Why can't we use this protein to produce food for human consumption? 

There is also a lot of opportunities on algae and algal cultivation, when it comes to renewable energy. 

There is cost associated with this, but we all know the cost of energy keeps going higher. 

So, there is opportunity in the future to look at algae as a source of fuel and bioenergy.

Having access to a spin-off company established at Murdoch University, called Algae Harvest would allow us to take these processes to commercialisation. 

The wastewater treatment can be applied to pretty much all of the agricultural waste in the State, including piggeries, abattoir, dairy, chicken industry and potentially even small villages and small towns, treating their domestic waste. 

When it comes to the sustainable bioreactors, because of the self-sustainability of these particular systems we are very interested to see if we can use these systems, and integrate them with the buildings. 

This would also allow us to mass produce the food on the spot for households. This is something that we are working closely with the Harry Butler institutes and Algae Harvest.

For growing any plants, you need three factors. Having access to water. We don't have a lot of fresh water in WA. However, we've got access to plenty of sea water coming from the Indian Ocean. 

That would mean that we can use that sea water to grow algae. 

The second important variable is land. Now we also know that we don't have access a lot of agricultural land, however we've got plenty of arid land that can be used to grow algae.

And the third one is the sunlight. We do get a lot of sunlight in this state. Algae is very good in converting sunlight to biomass. 

Putting all of these together that makes WA fantastic place for growing algae, especially if you move towards the north of WA. 

And this is the reason I live in West Australia, it is by far, one of the best places in the world, period, for mass production of algae.

This can be a potential platform for government, business and industry to develop these processes to not only produce future jobs, but also making this State a potential place for exporting food and fuel to other countries and other regions in Australia.

If you are looking at the whole algal spectrum, the reality is that algae are responsible for up to 50 of the oxygen that we are breathing. 

Also, they are a significant carbon sink. Every kilogram of algae contains 1.8 kilogram of carbon dioxide, and most importantly these are primary producers in the ocean. 

Without algae there would be no krill. Without krill there would be no fish. Without the fish there would be no dolphins, no sharks, no whales, none of those, so they're extremely important for the planet.