Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Making the sanitation process of water more available and sustainable is vital for people’s health. Unicef found that approximately 1.8 billion people use a source of drinking water that is not safely treated, putting them at risk of various adverse health effects (1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water – WHO, 2022). This is largely due to inefficient treatment of wastewater before it is made available to households.

BloomAid would contribute towards this problem as our engineered bacteria will be able to uptake phosphate from wastewater, making it a more suitable growth medium for microalgae to accumulate lipids from. High levels of phosphate in water released into the environment can lead to the excessive growth of aquatic plants such as algae (Indicators: Phosphorus | US EPA, 2022). This can lead to a variety of water-quality problems, including low dissolved oxygen concentrations(Indicators: Phosphorus | US EPA, 2022).

BloomAid may help to mitigate against these problems by helping to bring phosphate levels down to a safer level before it undergoes further treatment and subsequent release into the environment.

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

The overreliance on non-renewable energy sources has led to negative effects on our planet, as it is the largest contributing factor to climate change (The Causes of Climate Change, 2022). If we do not act now to make renewable energy sources affordable and available to everyone, we may not be able to win the battle against climate change.

Theoretically, BloomAid should be able to increase lipid production per microalgae. This would help bring down the production costs, as the same number of microalgae can be used to produce a greater amount of lipids (precursor to biofuels).

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Due to recent global events, there have been many challenges that have been overseen globally that dampen economic recovery. We at BloomAid believe that at the heart of sustained and sustainable economic growth is fulfilling jobs with the aim of improving the environment by reducing fossil fuel demand.

We aim to demonstrate that everyone can benefit from innovation and entrepreneurship through job creation with the aim of promoting economic growth. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of the global microalgal biofuel market is 8.76% from 2022 to 2030 (Straits Research, 2022), which demonstrates the growth expected in the sector which we are operating under. This growth will be assisted by future sustainable employment which we would offer if we were to commercialise.

Additionally, the price of oil worldwide (inclusive of the UK) has been affected due to the recent conflict in Ukraine, causing disruption in the supply of oil and thereby rapidly spiking oil prices. Bloomaid aims to weaken this currently rigid reliance on oil imports from abroad and produce biofuels domestically. This could promote sustainable economic growth within the UK and reduce the impact of supply shocks of fossil fuel commodities.

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Climate change is caused by multiple reasons such as cutting down forests and producing food. However, the United Nations has claimed that the main cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy (United Nations, 2022). For this reason, we must find alternative means for energy. Biofuels are a great source of renewable energy. Biofuels can help combat climate change because they are carbon neutral. The carbon that the feedstock (in our case, microalgae) takes up during its lifecycle is equivalent to the carbon that is released when biofuels are burned for energy (Bureauveritas, 2021).

BloomAid helps to make biofuels more economically favourable by increasing the yield of biofuel precursor molecules.

Goal 14: Life below water

One of the main causes of loss of diversity in bodies of fresh water over the last 100 years has been due to the effect of excess nutrients leaking into rivers and lakes, leading to eutrophication due to resultant algal blooms (Water quality in rivers, 2022).

Bloomaid will reduce the impact of this phenomenon by taking up excess phosphate and other nutrients in wastewater, instead of it leaking out into natural bodies.