| Can we develop novel algal biofertilisers from whisky co-products to produce barley sustainably? |
| Student: David Ashworth Industry partner: Chivas Brothers Supervisors: Dr Kelly Houston (JHI); Dr Davide Bulgareli (UoD) and Stefan Masson (Chivas) |
| Objectives |
| There is a growing pressure to reduce dependence on inorganic/mineral fertiliser due to the multiple problems caused by its use and production. First, production of nitrogenous fertiliser via the Haber process consumes 1-3% of global electricity and contributes to 1-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Production of phosphorus and potassium fertilisers require mining, and reserves are predicted to run out in the next two centuries. After being applied to a field, not all the fertiliser is taken up by the plant, leading to runoff of nutrients and soil degradation. The runoff into local water courses can cause eutrophication, which is the process of an algal bloom and subsequent anoxia, and ground water contamination. Therefore, there is a need to find alternative, sustainable fertilisers. Eutrophication can be caused by any nutrient rich wastewater being released into watercourses so wastewater must be treated to reduce nutrients to safe levels. Microalgae, such as Chlorella vulgaris have been shown to effectively treat wastewater, reducing concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter to safe concentrations. The accumulation of nutrients by algae have made them promising candidates for biofertilisers, organic fertilisers derived from living organisms that can provide nutrients to a plant. My project seeks to work with the Chivas Brothers to use the by-products from the distilling process, namely pot ale and spent lees, as a substrate for algal growth. This algae could then be used as a biofertiliser to grow barley, thereby establishing a circular economy where the outputs of whisky distilling help grow the inputs. |
| Progress to date |
| So far, my project has focussed on proving that Chlorella vulgaris, a food safe green microalga, can be used as a nutrient source for barley, which has been proved for other crops such as wheat, lettuce, and tomato. From two experiments so far, the algae treated plants have produced just as much biomass and produced grain that does not significantly differ from the mineral fertiliser treated plants, which shows that Chlorella vulgaris can be a nutrient source for barley. I have just harvested an experiment using different genotypes of barley, to test whether there is a genetic component in uptake and utilisation of algal nutrients, with analysis ongoing. |
| Future plans |
| Next year, I will be doing a joint root transcriptome and rhizosphere microbiome sequencing experiment, to see which genes are differentially expressed and if different microbes are recruited depending on which nutrient source is provided. |