Recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from domestic wastewater using algae cultivation and harvesting systems based on phototaxis
ABG-133256 | Master internship | 6 months | 600 euros approx |
2025-08-30 |
- Engineering sciences
- Process engineering
Employer organisation
WORKING CONDITIONS
The intern will be supervised by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Paris-Saclay University (UPS) and the Strasbourg National School of Water and Environmental Engineering (ENGEES). They will be hosted in person at the ENGEES-LEE laboratory.
Daily supervision will be provided by Mcf. German Martinez and Pr. Julien Laurent (ENGEES/ICUBE) for the process engineering and image processing components, and remotely by Professor Behnam Taidi (LGPM CentraleSupélec Laboratory) and Professor Mojtaba Jarrahi (FAST UPS Laboratory) for the bioprocess and biophysics components.
The planned internship duration is six months for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Internship compensation will follow the current CNRS or MASAF rates and is estimated at approximately €600/month.
Description
INTERNSHIP OFFER Master 1/Master 2 (6 months)
Recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from domestic wastewater using algae cultivation and harvesting systems based on phototaxis
Keywords: Motile microalgae, Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, motility, phototaxis, nutrient recovery, image processing. |
INTRODUCTION
Microalgae possess diverse biotechnological potential: they can harness solar energy and extract the necessary carbon from atmospheric CO2 to perform certain biotransformations and produce value-added compounds. However, one of the main obstacles to their large-scale use is the cost of harvesting them, with relatively low-density cultures (0.5 to 4.0 g dry matter/L), and sometimes also the operational costs of the cultivation systems.
This internship is part of a project aimed at developing a new biotechnology for the energy-efficient cultivation and harvesting of microalgae. In this technology, mixing and harvesting operations will be carried out by controlling "phototaxis": a phenomenon of locomotion of an organism guided by light stimuli. This physiological characteristic is specific to several species of motile algae, including the alga Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii. This alga, approximately 10 µm in diameter, uses its two flagella and stigma to detect the presence and intensity of light, swim, and modulate its distance from the light source.
Our most recent study [1] suggests that controlling phototactic movement can both (i) provide access to nutrients, particularly dissolved CO2, and (ii) be used for cell harvesting. This technology could offer several advantages, such as eliminating mechanical agitation and thus reducing energy consumption for mixing and harvesting operations. Indeed, mechanical agitation, or even agitation by aeration in large volumes, such as ponds, can be very costly and poorly controlled.
INTERNSHIP TASKS
The intern's main mission will be to test the application of the concept of "phototaxis-controlled agitation and harvesting" using reconstituted growth media, whose nitrogen and phosphorus inputs will come from domestic wastewater of varying degrees of treatment, such as urine, nitrate loaded discharge from reed-bed filters, or effluent from clarifiers of activated sludge plants.
To this end, the intern will be assigned the following tasks:
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REQUIRED PROFILE AND SKILLS
This internship is mainly aimed at Master 2 students(or equivalent) with previous training in process/chemical or bioprocess engineering. It is important that the student is comfortable using image processing software and programming languages. (e.g. ImageJ, Python, Matlab). A preliminary experience in the culture of microorganisms or microalgae is highly appreciated. Fluency in English is essential.
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