Francesco Gentili’s great passion in life is agriculture and the environment. Today he works at the department of forest biomaterials and technology at SLU in Umeå. In his research, he uses microalgae to purify wastewater and create emission-negative alternatives to current fertilizers.
– I am Italian and born in Genoa. I studied at the Agricultural University of Bologna. After my master’s degree, I wanted to do research and applied to universities around Europe and ended up in Sweden at the end of the 90s, where I did my PhD on nitrogen fixation, says Francesco Gentili.
– When I was a child, however, going to school was a nightmare. For me it was a prison. I preferred to be out early in the mornings with my great-grandfather. That was life.
Francesco has had an interest in circular economy, recycling and purification since childhood. On the father’s side they ran a farm with mostly wheat cultivation and on the mother’s side a market garden.
– Recycling is crucial. It’s about closing the loop. If we buy something from the other side of the world, we need to close the loop both locally and globally, says Francesco.
During his time as a postdoc, Francesco became more interested in algae and composting. He explains that when you compost garden waste or other organic waste in agriculture, up to 55% of the carbon goes into the air as carbon dioxide. It was something he wanted to change.
– In one of the first systems I built, I connected two plastic pipes so that air could pass between them. Then I put algae on one side and sawdust on the other to simulate composting. I discovered that the algae could capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide, says Francesco.
Francesco was pleasantly surprised and started googling about algae and composting but at the time the topic was still
unexplored.
He contacted Uminova Innovation, an incubator linked to SLU and Umeå University. They thought his discovery was exciting, which resulted in Francesco leading a project, Algpiloten, together with Umeå Energi. In the project, among other things, they mass-produced algae. Algpiloten was the first of its kind in Sweden.
– Cultivation in Nordic conditions means a colder and darker climate during the winter season. But also new possibilities with 22 hours of sunlight/day during the month of June.
For four years, an experimental plant was operated on the roof of one of Umeå Energi’s cogeneration plants. Among other things, the algae lived on nutrients from waste water from treatment plants, carbon dioxide from flue gases and sunlight.
– The environmental benefit exists on several levels; waste water is purified from nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, carbon dioxide is fixed and the end product becomes biomass that is suitable for producing, for example, biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel. The biomass can also be used as fertilizer, fish food and animal feed, explains Francesco.
After a few years, the algae project moved down to the ground where four algae basins were built on Umeå energi’s land area Dåva. This meant that you could test different algae and different waters at the same time.
The research project attracted a lot of interest nationally, and was selected by the government as one of thirteen good examples of Swedish environmental technology. When then Prime Minister Stefan Löfven inaugurated the new algae pools, he highlighted it as a good collaboration between society, the scientific world and business.
It is important that academia and industry meet, says Francesco. For me, collaborating with the industry has been crucial. That’s where you find real problems that need solving.
In the process of moving on and making use of his ideas, Francesco has collaborated with SLU Holding’s innovation and business advisor Maria Klintenäs.
– Maria’s support has been crucial. She has been very helpful and contributed with contacts and tips. Together with my colleague Sam Cook, research engineer at Umeå University, we have also received VFT funds through SLU Holding to test our concept with algae as biostimulants, says Francesco.
It is extremely important to be able to verify and validate your product against users. Sam and I are trying to engage agricultural entrepreneurs in the region. It is only when we can create added value for them that we have a product that can be sold.
The interest has been great and now we are investing in starting a company to sell biostimulants and biofertilizers.
On a larger scale, Francesco hopes that the knowledge from his research will be able to contribute to the establishment of larger process facilities where algae are used to clean wastewater from municipalities and industries throughout Sweden and also other parts of the world.
Read more about Francescos research here.
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