Meet Algae Expert: Dr Alla Silkina

Tell me a little about your role…

I represent algal research in the newly created, Green Economy Centre. My main role is to work with companies to discuss algal biotechnology and assess whether we could conduct R&D to solve their problems or to create a new product, process or service. Whether that’s through screening for different properties, compounds or extracts, by growing these microorganisms in different scales up to 10,000 litres, testing new scale-up facilities for commercial exploitation or providing the biomass for different applications.

Area of Expertise?

I’m an algal biotechnologist and phycologist, but I started my career as an algal taxonomist. I identify species of algae isolated from natural habitats, mainly from the sea and rivers.

I started my algal career in a laboratory of algal physiology in Ukraine, before completing my PhD in marine biotechnology and chemistry in France. My expertise was in the development of antifouling compounds, extracted from seaweeds, which would be used to stop the microfouling of marine life. I later went on to my first post-doc in Malaysia, where I used micro-algae as live food development for green water technology and for other environmental aspects. I also worked with a micro-algal communities isolated from a mangrove area, to understand how the mangrove trees could be protected from anti-fouling.

Since 2010 I’ve worked in Swansea University where I’ve cultivated algae on a mass scale for three main purposes. First is for bioremediation, using waste nutrients from agriculture, heavy industry etc to use in an algal-cultivation system, removing nitrogen and phosphorus and creating clean water and air. Second, is the application of biomass for agriculture and aquaculture, and the third aspect is high value product creation. For example, extracting fatty acids, proteins and pigments from different algal species grown in scale, and applying them to different industrial processes. These fatty acids and pigments are incredibly useful in the pharmaceutical industry, as they’re used for supplements, including vegan omega 3.

Why algae?

Originally, I wanted to be an international languages translator, but it was incredibly expensive to study. I was good at maths and science, so I was given a bursary to study biology. I grew up in Crimea, close to the black sea, and I’d always lived near the coast. I wanted to do something that would make a difference and recognised that algae could help with marine pollution crisis. I was also fascinated by the beauty and colours of algal cells.

I think there’s something magical about these organisms, they were around long before us, and despite so many environmental changes they’ve continued to thrive, with thousands of species, many of which we don’t even know yet.

How are you currently working with the NP BioHUB?

I came to the NP BioHUB as I have a lot of experience in applied science. I’m working with a variety of companies, and I want to bring our knowledge and technology to industry. Algae is an environmentally friendly technology, and it can be applied in so many ways. Whether it be agriculture, heavy industry, water treatment or aquaculture companies, I’m maintaining relationships with several businesses in these sectors. I also want to help them access grant funding and work with them on proposals, as this could be beneficial for everyone.

My new role in the NP BioHUB will allow me to focus on building these relationships, and I’m very excited about what this opportunity could mean for algal innovation.

Current projects...

I’m currently working on four different projects, with the two main projects focusing on brewery wastewater remediation. One of the projects, AlgaeBrew, is being led by University College Dublin, and has multiple partners across Europe. Swansea University is a central partner in this project as we are using our algal facilities to grow a species known as Nannochloropsis Oceanica, using wastewater from the brewery. The wastewater is full of nutrients which can help speed up the algae growth and we’re growing seawater species on freshwater wastewater. This species is also unique as it produces both omega 3 and omega 6 oils, whereas most cultures produce either one or the other. One part is the extraction of oils, and the leftover biomass goes as fertiliser with both products being used across Europe, including in Romanian, Belgian and Italian institutions. We have produced enough biomass to satisfy requirements for fertilisers and fish feeds and this project will end in December 2025.

The second project is working on the remediation of algal CO2 produced by local microbrewery, Bluestone in Pembrokeshire. Despite being a small company, they produce up to 150,000 litres of beer annually, with approximately 4 kilograms of CO2 in every hundred litres. They have a clear focus on sustainability from their fermentation process through to production, so using algae aligns with their green technology aims. We’ve installed our 1000 litre raceway and 400 litre photo bioreactor at the plant, to remediate the CO2 coming during the fermentation process. We’ve successfully grown two algal species on-site, spirulina and Scenedesmus, which we can use for our data analysis to understand the quantity of CO2 ingested by algae. Hopefully, we can expand our work into other breweries. We’re also creating a new green beer from the algal biomass, so keep an eye out in April 2025.

My third project is called Vismo, again working with Nannochloropsis Oceanica, but this time we’re testing the different metabolites, and we’re extracting the pigments for fish nutrition and reviewing potential applications for aquaculture. We’ve grown these metabolites on a smaller scale but now we’re moving to mass scale to better understand the physiology and attractiveness of the metabolites for other organisms.

My fourth project is working in collaboration with Swansea University's engineering department, specifically with Professor Darren Oatley-Radcliffe. I’m studying which algal species would be best to apply for the mass scale production for CO2 remediation at the Nickel biorefinery in Clydach, Remediiate.  

What can you offer companies through the Green Economy Centre?

All aspects of my research would be open to the companies. We can screen different strains of algae for different applications, whether that be agricultural fertilisers, wastewater remediation, flu gas remediation, carbon sequestration, the list goes on. Production of algal biomass for the high value products and valuable algal metabolites. We can get algal species from our culture collection and access larger collections through our collaboration with SAMS. It offers a great opportunity to cover all aspects on algal biotechnology and gives companies access to equipment and knowledge they would struggle to access outside of the centre.

Want to reach out to Alla? Find her through LinkedIn or email her at a.silkina@swansea.ac.uk