Technology

How does the ALGAESYS system work?

It removes nitrogen, phosphorus and carbonaceous pollutants, absorbs micro-plastics and heavy metals, destroys persistent organics, disinfects to at least EU Class C without additional treatment and absorbs approximately 1015 grams of atmospheric carbon dioxide per cubic meter of wastewater treated.

​In existing wastewater treatment systems, the organic pollutants are oxidised by heterotrophic microorganisms, a process that requires energy consuming oxygenation through aeration and costly additional process steps for the disinfection and removal of persistent organic chemicals. 

​ALGAESYS uses naturally occurring colonised phototrophic biomass that produce reactive oxygen species which remove pathogens and oxidise persistent organics such as trace organics, hormones, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine disruptors. They also produce extracellular polymeric substances that provide far more effective toxic shock event survival than conventional bacterial systems. These polymeric substances enable the colony that attaches to our rotating logs to become established, creating optimal conditions for maximising the efficacy of the biomass in breaking down and using the pollutants for cell growth.

The patented ALGAESYS technology has been developed and extensively demonstrated at full-scale in the USA, and further optimised in China and is currently being implemented in Western Australia and Europe.