Well, not yet but I liked the heading anyway.

I have today filled the PBR holding tank and added raw sea salt to get my saline growing solution. Other nutrients and base minerals and vitamens are being made up for me in concentrated form but sample tubes are on the way to help with the grow out program.

The 250ml algae seeding sample arrived in the mail yesterday and I have started the growing out program. Will need to grow the volume up through 1 litre to 10 litre to 20 litre to 40 litre and then 100 litre before adding to my 4000 litre holding tank.

Exciting times!!!

nev ,

I would definately like to learn more about this. I am very interested in this. I am in the process of converting my dodge to SVO/wvo and am intersted in the algae side of it. I have a degree in Marine Science. I am in oklahoma, USA and want to help develop a viable fuel source that is eco-friendly. if you would like to converse get contact with me.
Daniel Franke

Keep us informed. I really look forward to hearing how your experience progresses.

I too am also very interested in this field of research and would like to gather information about PBRs and the cultivation process.
Keep us posted

cutting edge practical research for us homebrewers on what I belive to be the true future feedstock of the biofuels revelution. Never give in, never surrender (Galaxy Quest ).

First report back and it is not looking all that good at present.

Original seeding sample was split 100ml each in 2 clear plastic bottles with the remaining 50ml kept safe and clean.

2 plastic bottles are sitting in front of a flourescent light, 12 hours on 12 hours off and both have bubblers in them. But no growth visible, only lumpy white pieces floating around in the current. There is some green settlement at the bottom but very minimal.

I shall try a smaller batch, seeded from the safe sample - maybe use a glass jar that I can boil to sterilise.

Nev,

What are you "bubbling" into your containers?

Nev,
Saline concentration?
Growth medium PH?
Mineral composition and concentration?
Nutrient feed composition?

At present just buubling air into the mix with an aquarium pump.
Saline concentartion is 3% - 120 kg salt into 4000 litres water.
Trying to move the Ph up to 9. at the moment a little low at 7.5
Chemical solution is the F2 recipe.Nutrient mix is a soup made from commercial garden organic fertiliser dripped in at the rate of 1 drop a day - can't get closer than that.

Nev,

I wonder if the algae needs much bubbling during the "culturing" phase?

I haven't seen the supplier's literature so I may be way off base.

A small amount of algae should not need much agitation to maximize exposure to your light source. Extra agitation wouldn't be needed until the algae bloomed.

The oxygen provided by the constant bubbling may be detrimental to the algae growth. And, if not detrimental, then not really helpful.

The algae does need the carbon dioxide provided by the air bubbler. But, how much is really needed until the algae blooms? Is it possible the CO2 might form carbonic acid, thereby lowering the pH of the medium so low that it harms the algae - at least during the early stages of algae growth?

Again, I don't know what the supplier recommends, but these are just some thoughts relating to algae growth.

quote:

Originally posted by producer:
Nev,

I wonder if the algae needs much bubbling during the "culturing" phase?

May be right there although I am checking Ph every other day and it has not dropped below 7.5 - ideal is around 9.
Maybe need to use the air pipe without the airstone to just get movement in the water.

Go to your grocery store and buy a bottle of carbonated water.

Add the carbonated water to your algae and watch them go crazy for it. Be sure to put a cap on the top so that the CO2 doesnt escape into the air.

Yes, it will lower the pH of the water but my algae didnt seem to care.
In fact, from what I gather, growing the algae in carbonated water would be the fastest way to grow it. The problem is making the carbonated water is expensive.

Pottasium phosphate (as we can make as a byproduct) promotes algal blooms.

fermenting wine provides CO2

Two birds with one stone.

Or stoner as the hydroponics crowd utilise this kind of 'co-planting' stratagey.

Would super-saturating the water with CO2 using a bit of pressure be of any benefit, or does the algae also need air/oxygen? Use a plastic 2-liter soda bottle, drop in a tiny bit of dry ice and screw the lid back on, or possibly find an old-style selser bottle that uses the small CO2 cylinders to make carbonated water.

I would think the price of CO2 would be coming down in the future as all the new ethanol plants come on line. I read that the yeast grown during the fermentation process produces about the same poundage of CO2 as it does ethanol, this is pure CO2 that is captured and compressed for sale commercially. This is a much less expensive way of generating CO2 than seperating it from air using pressure and temp. I am also seeing a good bit of research being done about the development of selectively porous micro-membrane material to seperate CO2 directly from air.

What byproducts does algae produce/secrete during it's growing process? How high of an alcohol content could algae survive in? Would dry brewers yeast burn like dry algae apparently does? Would algae survive the temps needed to evaporate off the alcohol?

thought I would try to answer my own questions -- found the following about adding CO2 to algae growth medium and not lowering the ph so much. Article is here, second section.
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A method to transfer CO2 to an algal growth solution has been developed. Normally, the reaction of CO2 in an algal growth medium is slow. Also, because of low pH, the solution will de-gas significantly on exposure to the atmosphere. However, when CO2 is bubbled through a column packed with fly ash, almost all the gas goes into solution, and the pH remains higher than it ordinarily would for the same level of bicarbonate in solution.

The mass transfer rate of CO2 gas to carbonate solution is the rate-limiting step in producing carbon-enriched solutions. A co-current reactor containing fly ash has been compared to a similar reactor containing glass beads. The uptake of CO2 in the fly ash column was 5 to 9 times greater than the rate for the glass bead column. The fly ash also had the capacity to buffer the solution to a pH more suitable for biological systems.

This project, using fly ash as a catalyst, will create a carbon-enriched coal combustion product (CCP) liquid biosystem that will serve as an algal growth medium.
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From THIS patent document --

Waste-containing liquor is biochemically treated in a tank or cell by continuously circulating it through a filter media containing quantities of aerobic and facultative bacteria, after a quantity of the waste material is removed, the remaining liquor is directed to and circulated in a algal growth tank. Minerals such as nitrates and phosphates present in the waste liquor serve as nutrients for the growing, filamentous algae; carbon dioxide is optionally recovered from the aerobic bacterial metabolism chamber and introduced into the algal growth tank. The filter tanks and the algal growth tanks may be independently arranged for serial or parallel flow of liquor.
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This municaple water quality article indicates high neutriant loads, warm temps, and absence of air, promote algae growth, the excess algae growth byproducts are "geosim" and "methylisobor" (MIB), these produce earthy tasts in the water. Many suggestions on how to reduce the algae growth, may be able to do just the opposite to make it grow?
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THIS links to a 10 page PDF entitled "Photosynthesis and Optimizing Algae Growth in a Bioreactor".

This describes 3 different algae strains, there yields, and how they were grown. Also referes to using almost dry algae DIRECTLY as a powdered fuel for a diesel engine (at least I think that is what they are describing).

Looks like the amount of light is critical, too much and photosynthesis stops, too little and growth stops. Light amounts and wavelengths are reflected in all these articles to some extent.

About 20 other articles or papers are referanced for more fun reading.
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All these articles were found on the very first page of a search for "algae growth byproducts".

Wow, thanks Tim.
I have been working my way through the millions of papers that are out there but you have just saved me an awfull lot of time. Thanks a ton for that.
Growing out the algae in 1 litre bottles will preclude the use of a fly ash column but as I get up to bigger quantities I will certainly incorporate this.

Murphy, I remember you telling us how your bottle of algae went wild when you added carbonated water. I will get down to the local corner store in the morning and try it.

Right now I have some reading to do.

Tim, I wasn't thinking of yeast and algae in the same bottle... seperate cultures with the CO2 from the yeast being bubbled through the algae.

Ant - yes, I figured that but I was wondering if it could be done. It would be nice if two different usable organisims would grow in the same medium while feeding each other with there respective waste products.

The aquarium trade builds CO2 generators for their tanks. Here is an example. DIY CO2 Generator

quote:

It would be nice if two different usable organisims would grow in the same medium while feeding each other with there respective waste products.

It would be an elegant mini ecosystem indeed.