Thrown-together Algae Photobioreactor

[uniftee]

How much energy did the bubbler take?

[stanley03061973]

You shouldnt have dolphines in D pool ,Mate .LOL

[chemistNATE]

I think the reason algae isn't used for CO2 offset, is that it dies too quickly. Once a tree absorbs a CO2 molecule, it's tied up in the tree for hundreds of years. Algae, unless it's kept alive, dies pretty easily. Keeping it alive would be the toughest part, where would it all be stored?

[roidroid]

@chemistNATE perhaps it could be stored deep underground in now-empty oil and gas reservoirs. As either dead algae cake (might be troublesome as a solid), or just biodiesel, or perhaps just pure CO2 (if the algae is grown and then combusted in a powerplant - solely for the purpose of sequestering CO2).

or, it could be partially combusted and turned into biochar. And then that could be stored anywhere, even tilled into the soil to improve fertility.

Does wood really last hundreds of years?

[goose2goose2]

I guess I miss the point of this video..

what are you trying to show us...

[roidroid]

Algae is a very promising biofuel crop.

I wanted to show just how prevalent it is, that it will prettymuch grow by itself with minimal effort and outlay.

[goose2goose2]

put some paint on them and brighten them up a little.

SO..how's things with you?

[goose2goose2]

It's probably way OU ,but it too needs magnets replaced every ten years

so you can't call it PM...( those two ugly words that engineers hate so much )

Anyway...I've only begin testing these and they have some pretty cool

qualities...if you get them up to fairly high speed on the bike..

the amp draw falls way off..down to less than an Amp...at 25mph

level ground...I haven't gone very far with it..less than fifty miles

at a time...but it see good so far...

[goose2goose2]

The prototype is a real ugly piece of work..but hey it's

better than I had hoped.

The next new piece ....you gonna probably need some

help with this one...

a six cylinder - ( in line ) pendulum motor...

[goose2goose2]

the phase rotates 16 times per revolution of the wheel

and the efficiency is real decent...97-98..

We don't claim any OU or anything..

the motor will only do this for the life of the magnets

maybe ten years or a bit less..and they cost quite a bit,

I think about 40 dollars or so. total.

[goose2goose2]

Doing pretty well actually...

Just so folks know..we're not breaking any new ground here..

I just have a bike hub motor that will propel you down the road

at about 25 mph drawing 2 amps at 12 volts..

not a big honking motor, just a one of a kind 16 phase ac motor..

[JehuMcSpooran]

I've found that about 50-100mL of old urine in a 2L coke bottle works really well.

[azraaell]

i would say on reflection and the pasage of time that i would like to retract the ultimate maning of dooomed doooomed i say to earth is in the hand of the humens when the book of life has no writing, lets see what happens before satge 3

[roidroid]

what?

[azraaell]

about 80% of the worlds oxygen comes from algae

[cheaphardwarez]

I think the point of a bio reactor is to keep the algae water exposed to more sunlight so mim not sure a bucket qualifies, but good try. Use small pipes/tubes ect allows maximum sunlight to reach more algae.

Top get the oil, you have to strain it out some how. Then dry on a windows screen and place into a garlic press and squeeze as hard as you can for a long time until you get a drop of oil.. Well, if your strain has much oil that is.

[roidroid]

In the end i did strain out the Algae (a half cup or so of brown/black "mud") and let it air dry. But unfortunately it was mistaken as trash and thrown out before i got around to trying to squeeze it.

It was interesting watching it grow though, and i have some other algae experiments i'd like to try some year. I'd like to cover a fence that faces the sun, entirely (top to bottom) with a huge water filled polyethylene bag, and grow algae in that. Fences seem so useless, they only make shade.

[YouAdamNazzkl0wn]

Ironically- he's trying to grow algae next to the pool- where he dumps all those chemicals - to kill algae!!!

[greenteen85]

a most clever point you make. way to be

[YouAdamNazzkl0wn]

That was fucking lame.

was there a point??

a conclusion??

[roidroid]

is there indeed

[itsblockdog]

My brother was just discussing these things with me over the holiday. He tends to his swimming pool with "different eyes" in this regard. "Grow energy source" It's marvelous.

[pinkytm1]

I have to clean algae out of my dogs water bowl often. It grows apparently a lot faster than your project algae did. :)

[agbz]

What is the energy that you're harnassing?

[roidroid]

Solar. But to be accurate it's also harvesting trace nitrates from the environment (which are created elsewhere in the environment - via solar energy as well).

Some algaes do create a lot of nitrates on their own (harvesting nitrogen from the atmosphere), and when coupled together these algae can feed other algaes, effectively adding nitrates to an otherwise semi-closed ecosystem. One less trace element needed.

(phew)

[bigdaddyjay85]

dude, how is biodiesel, or fuel, extracted from the algea. Can you explain it simply for me?

I live in Texas and we have prime weather to produce this stuff, it would be an awesome experiment for my Organic Chemistry class.

[roidroid]

I've never done it before. This algae was grown just so i could watch it grow.

I'm not even sure of the oil content of this algae.

Vegetable oil is extracted from the algae.

I think they dry it, and then put it in a press to squeeze the oil out.

That vegetable oil *can* be burned directly in a diesel engine.

Or you can convert that vegetable oil into biodiesel. Making biodiesel from vegetable oil would be better explained by other youtube videos - take a look around ;)

[bloodyheart135]

I did an experiment with this process, and we simply extracted it with hexane. Dry the algae, mix/open the cells in a Werring(sp?)Blender, and then mix with hexane (under a fume hood of course) and let separate. Your chem teacher should know the particulars.

[IHIG266]

good job

I tryed to make a similar photobioreactor however it did not work at all. I believe my problem was with the medium that i was using

what kind of medium/nutrients are you using in this photobioreactor

[roidroid]

Medium: rain WATER from the roof

Nutrients: NONE, only what was in the rainwater (perhaps rich in bat-shit washed off the roof?) and whatever fell into the open bucket over the month or two that it was growing.

this is literally just water in a bucket in the sun with a bubbler, left for a few months (i occasionally stirred/scraped the algae off the sides). I didn't even seed the algae into it - it started by itself.

Yours should have grown something, perhaps on the bucket's sides?

[azraaell]

wee are doooooomed, dooooomed i say,

but im not in authortiy so i may be rong,

[astrialkil]

Since when do U HAVE to be an AUTHORITY to be RIGHT? Or even to have an opinion?

[Leibensborn]

yawn

[roidroid]

gardening is relaxing :3

[Leibensborn]

I agree, but watching a bucket full of water with an airstone is nothing to show off or discuss.

[roidroid]

it's showing how simple algae is to grow. i'm glad you noticed that.

[azraaell]

i think the idea with algae is how not to grow it, why the hell would i want to airate some algae in a bucket

[roidroid]

For the same reason people grow soybeans and corn for fuel.

Algae is the fastest growing plant in existence and can be used for making fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

An area of land dedicated to growing Algae can produce 1000x more fuel than the equivalent area of Soybeans.

It's the future of fuel crops, and can replace fossil oil.

[azraaell]

algae provides around 80% of the worlds oxygen, 1000x more fuel than soy beans, thats amaizing, how long can i run my car on a soy bean? there is 1000 variaties of bean witch is the same number as the amount of x's that algae is better than them, maybe its a sighn,

"who killed the electric car" film documentory watch it and see what you think of the future of cars running on clean fuels, its a shame

[roidroid]

"If you take a tenth of the state of New Mexico and converted in solar algae alone this would be ALL the transportation in the United States," - Glen Kertz, CEO and Principal Scientist of Valcent (makers of the Vertigro algae system).

New Mexico is mostly desert. Unlike other fuel crops (soy/corn/palm) - algae doesn't compete for food-crop land.

look up "Vertigro" on youtube, it's the cutting-edge of algae production.

[astrialkil]

The problem is U need a culture of the high producing algae to really experiment, and i haven't found any source.

The profit potential is soooo high that they don't want the little guy to touch it.

Bio fuel will be only corporate.

[nowtryitsideways]

maybe increase surface area inside the container for the algae to grow on?

[roidroid]

AFAIK they don't need a surface area - a medium to grow on. Instead they just float around suspended in the water. All they need is sunlight.

If the bubbling wasn't mixing it, the algae might float to the surface, so that the only surface area would be the surface of the water (and below that surface would be permanently shaded). That'd be bad, so you gotta keep it mixing.

After this i used some bigger CLEAR plastic storage containers instead. That helped get more sunlight.

[azraaell]

never mind the fancy arse lingo like "increse surface are", "container", "the", you mean get a bigger bucket

[roidroid]

haha yeah exactly, and make sure it's transparent.

you can avoid problems though like contamination and water evaporation if you use a sealed system, like poly-tube or clear plastic bags.

[donatofuyung]

Iv been trying the same thing.just need my Chemistry buddy to take me seriously so he can help me extract the lipids.I would love to try and run a small hobby motor or burn it then post the vide!any advice would be appreciated

[roidroid]

there's a youtube user named Agrisonic who does research into efficient burning of biomass to produce heat (used for cooking, or heat which could run a stirling engine to produce energy) and biochar, which is a potent soil fertiliser for cropland.

He's mainly using bamboo, but has become interested in algae as it grows even faster than bamboo (i assume).

You may be interested in his vids. As algae/biomass/stirling/energy/­biochar seems like a good combination of simple DIY/cheap technologies.

[astrialkil]

Hey roidroid watch out for the human pee as its considered sewage your local town heads might freak out if they think it could spread disease and they ASSUME GUILT! U would have to prove your innocence , not that u don't have a disease but that it didn't contain sewage. Public servants are insane.

[markgilst]

Great alage pet! But pee in it?

[roidroid]

i never did get around to that

[markgilst]

Oh, ok. What will you use the alage for?

[roidroid]

i heard algae was the fastest growing plant, and therefore this makes it the fastest growing source of BIOMASS.

i wanted to see just how fast it was, and how simple it was to grow it. To gauge how viable it was for people to grow their own algae biomass.

[jgizmo]

Thanks for subscribing to my channel....perhaps I should take some pond scum with me to the Texas desert when I move next month. .giZmo.