How a pioneering project in Northumberland is using algae to capture carbon on LNER railways

Julia Barthram has been at Berwick railway station where a pilot project to capture carbon using algae has been a success

A pioneering project in Northumberland is investigating whether algae could provide part of the solution to climate change.

Algae is being grown in a trial at Berwick railway station.

Dr Mate Ravasz, CEO of bio-tech start up company, Algacraft, told ITV Tyne Tees: "Algae can be up to 400 times as efficient at capturing carbon as plants are, they basically capture carbon faster than any plant that we know of."

Algacraft is investigating the industrial production of algae and its uses. It approached London North Eastern Railway (LNER) for help with the project.

"We thought it was an absolutely fantastic idea." said Olivia Mouter, Environmental Partnership Manager, LNER.

"We do have these brownfield, dead spaces across our network and we thought what a wonderful idea to put use to that land and make it into something that is really beneficial to the company and really beneficial environmentally as well."

"It's important that this is part of a mix of different approaches," said Dr Matjaz Vidmar, project manager at Algacraft. "Where you can grow trees, grow trees, but on brownfield land nothing else grows, so this is the best thing we can actually do."

A pilot phase of the project, on a small scale, tested whether algae could grow in an outdoor UK climate without any artificial heating.

The pilot was a success and further tests are now increasing the amount of algae produced.

Dr Ravasz added: "This is a sixty litre test site, it's comparable to a handful of potted plants for carbon capture.

"So we need to upscale it by a considerable amount and then it will be one of the methods to capture carbon and help reduce our carbon footprint as a whole."

Once harvested the algae can be used as fertiliser in the local area. Other uses, such as producing bio plastics, are being explored.

Further phases of the test aim to trial growing algae on a larger scale and at another site on the LNER network.

"After we've actually extracted the algae those algae have value, we can use them as fertiliser, we can use them as pigment, we can use them as all sorts of industrial applications," said Dr Vidmar.

"That value might pay for the investment in the technology itself. So what we're trying to build is not just a science case for how this is done but also a business case that this can scale very easily right across the country."

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