My project involves research into the causes of toxic cyanobacteria blooms and the development of a system which mitigates the risk. Cyanobacteria blooms plague global waterways and seriously impact the health of aquatic organisms, terrestrial animals, and humans. This threat is growing in prevalence alongside climate change and thus I aimed to design a system which prevents uncontrolled cyanobacteria reproduction (a bloom event), whilst allowing natural populations to exist.

The design, the SolarCyanoSlayer, is also aimed to be self-sustaining for long-term implementation and constructed of biologically derived and recycled materials, reducing the embodied energy of construction. When placed in simulated eutrophic conditions the invention was demonstrated to be highly effective in countering cyanobacteria blooms and subsequently improving overall water quality.

The idea for the project came from my research into the causes of cyanobacteria blooms, which clearly illustrated to me the measures required to prevent these conditions. All materials were sourced locally and were of low ecological impact, making the solution to a great environmental threat, very sustainable.