Algae also offer the potential of aiding in the curbing of CO2 emissions from power stations and cement factories, and in cleaning nitrates and phosphates from agricultural runoff water and effluent from sewage plants, while simultaneously furnishing useful fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol according to how the algae are processed.

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Water quality issues also create risk for companies, from stricter pollution standards on their own effluent to other entities polluting water upstream, requiring them to clean up water prior to use.

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We will also look at trade effluent because it is the dirty water and normally needs to be licensed and manage very carefully.

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Effluent waste from these concentrated animal facilities are undermining what little clean water and healthy micro-nutrient cycles still exist out there.

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On the Firth of Forth, says Northumbrian Water's Mr Spray, large populations of scaup, a diving duck, vanished after the effluent was cleaned up.

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