THE Durban University of Technology continues to be a dominant force in the international arena courtesy of its research development, innovation and technological advancements.
Recently, two DUT students doing their PHD studies in the Institute for Water and Waterwaste Technology made history and left an indelible mark during the 11th annual Algae Biomass Summit held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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The summit is the world’s largest algae event and sees students, leading producers of algae products assembled in one area to network with industry suppliers and technology providers.
The international showpiece is also where project developers come into contact with key roleplayers in the algae industry including showcasing their research and recapping on recent successes and developments in the field. During the four-days gathering, PHD candidates Punam Singh and Luveshan Ramanna emerged victorious claiming third and fourth places respectively for their research abstract they had submitted for consideration. Out of 300 submissions made by other researchers from different universities abroad, the two students came up tops.
Recapping on their international success Ramanna said: “We submitted our research projects earlier this year, 300 postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows submitted their research and we earned third and fourth places. This is a big achievement for us as academics considering that we were competing with well-known American universities. This is really great achievement for DUT.”
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Ramanna explained that judges were seeking research projects which presented new discoveries, innovations and commercial progress in algae-based solutions. This included waste streams, monetising carbon, food, feed and nutrition including energy and fuels. The abstracts submitted were reviewed by a team of experts in each primary topic and they were subsequently measured against criteria such as importance to the field, new data, clarity and its relevance.
“My whole research project deals with algae and with the few high value products we can extract from algae. These products include lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and for me it was carotenoids and chlorophylls. These carotenoids and chlorophylls can be used as nutraceutical supplements. Before you even can extract these you need a lot of algae so I’m trying to enhance the algae growth by manipulating light. By me producing more of these I would be able to sell it in South Africa with a cheaper price than for us importing it,” said Ramanna.
On the other hand, Singh who is also a Doctoral candidate, said her project was investigating the methods that can be adopted to produce clean petroleum and renewable energy.
“In South Africa there is a problem of energy because of the petrol and diesel prices going up. We need alternative energy sources to replace the existing fuel. The petroleum industry currently is contributing heavily towards air pollution; we need sources that are pollution free. My project is centred around algae biodiesel. I have developed a strategy that South Africa can use to produce clean energy,” she said.
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