An innovative industrial plant process that uses algae to clean waste water has opened in the United Kingdom as a joint project between a university and an ecological company.

The imaginative trial facility in Gloucestershire, western England is run by scientists from the University of Bath's Department of Biology & Biochemistry working with an environmental innovation company, Aragreen.

It is designed to demonstrate the efficacy of algae as a sustainable water cleansing - or "water polishing" technology - using waste water from a nearby processing plant run by Welsh Water.

The algae are to be harvested and used in the production of saleable products. The first of its kind in the UK, this scheme will be used to trial different techniques and methods, and to experiment with various species of algae to find those most suitable for water polishing and for biofuel, biochemical and protein production.

The team expects the plant to enter commercial production by the end of 2012. Rod Scott, who is professor of plant molecular biology and the academic leader on the project, said: "There is a large demand for both sustainable water polishing techniques and production methods for renewable fuels and algae biomass which pose less competition to increasingly scarce productive farmland.

"However, finding a cost-effective method for growing algae in large quantities has historically been difficult. By working with Dr Tom Arnot in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Professor Matthew Davidson in the Department of Chemistry, we have invested in a multidisciplinary approach to tackle these issues."

Waste water is high in nitrates and phosphates and companies have to remove these to create clean water. Currently, a number of chemical processes are used to treat the water and extract these substances to avoid pollution of natural water systems.

Professor Scott added: "Nitrates and phosphates are required by algae as nutrients, and the process of growing algae strips them out of the waste water. In the future we may also use waste carbon dioxide from industry to further enhance the process and make use of another waste stream.

"We are also currently investigating algae growing in the city's Roman baths [in ancient Bath] which can survive at higher temperatures and could cut the cost of cooling the photo-bioreactors. Along with other cost-cutting measures, such as low-energy lighting, we hope to be able to demonstrate a viable waste water cleaning solution which may also provide valuable biomass as a by-product."

The waste water for the pilot plant will be piped from a nearby Welsh Water plant into photo-bioreactors, large clear tubes under LED lights, in which the algae will grow. The clean water will be returned to Welsh Water free of cost for the purposes of the pilot scheme, although resale of this product will eventually be essential to reach commercial viability.

When the algae are ready to be extracted from the photo-bioreactor, they are first concentrated by specialised machinery before being dried into biomass that can be used for a range of purposes such as biofuel, fertilisers or proteins.

The project is funded by a grant of 400,000 pounds from Bath University's Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council knowledge transfer account, matched by Aragreen. The plant was built at additional cost and funded by Aragreen.