I figured we could post stuff that we find here. My latest discovery;
a contact for free 220 gallon resevoirs. Like these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCXTzpVyVM0&feature=channel_page .
Anybody want one? I believe the supply is rather large.
I wonder about using something like this for rainwater collection. I have thought about doing something like that for water collection from the gutter until the tank is full and then bypass, but I don’t know how feasible that is. Do you have any sense if the tanks are clean/unused/food-grade? I would still have to get that idea past the “boss”.
thanks,
Mike
i thought most bio reactors grew media in tubes because of light penetration? (once the algae start to mature they block sunlight)
what kind of algae would you want to grow?
since the guy pumps CO2 from a tank, would it be possible to collect CO2 from some other source (say the exhaust vent from a furnace) and pipe it into the reactor?
on a somewhat related note, i saw this talk a while back about using plants to make fresh air, and i was thinking that a
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_own_fresh_air.html
what is interesting is that based on the talk, you would need a pretty large space to grow all of those plants in your home (about a dozen per person) which might combine nicely with a sun space or green house what cold be used to generate passive solar heat in the winter time.
You are correct about the light penetration. The guy’s approach here is pound wise but penny foolish. He is neglecting important details. His yields would be higher if he had tanks that had a more optimum distance to center of mass.
Any algae I would grow at this point would be purely for experiment. Probably in a 2 liter rack system. With the large wire frame shelves I figure I can have about 65 2 liter bottles. But I want to build the system so that it is self flushing and monitoring. TDS, pH, Temp, O2 and CO2 sensors on incoming and outgoing lines data dumping to a server. I’m particularly interested in pure culture measurement. Determining what species or combination of species yield biomass the quickest, Produce more O2, scrub more CO2. Efficiency stuff. You get the idea.
I would like to grow bioluminescent algae just to say that I can do it. I had thought about making an attractive tank for it. Kind of a bionightlite.
I’ve seen that talk. He has some good points. But inside plants require alot of direct human interaction. I have a feeling an installed algal scrubbing system would do a better job and be less of a maintenance headache. I would also be willing to be the that the algal system would be less of a square foot consumer than the plants. However there is food to consider. I’ve been doing a lot of reading along those lines the last few years. These folks seem to be the closest.
New Alchemy Institute. http://www.vsb.cape.com/~nature/greencenter/ these are the hippies that pulled it off. Well done that. I wouldn’t mind doing that in the next 5 years. Off grid, Off water, Off (as much as possible) outside food supply. I wouldn’t mind having a chunk of ground free and clear by the time I die. “Here you go kids. You don’t owe anyone anything. You can live here and never have to bow to another human soul. Unless they have a gun.” That’s pretty close to paradise in my book.
Book by one of the members of NAI. http://www.islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?prod_id=1644
Can’t wait to close on my house so that I can get started on a catchement system.
Wow! Dave found some lockers at Dillards (they are closing a store) and they wanted $75 a locker, $15 a locker sounds awesome.
The lockers at dillards (northgate) are $35, not $75. But $15 is
obviously better still. Here are some photos I took of them. (
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_menninger/3682407291/ ) They are
the kind with 5 small lockers in a column. I may still go there
tomorrow and get one column of them.
~Dave
Woops, sry bought that… I was a bit tired when I read the message in IRC last night.
Dave, if you need help moving them tomorrow let me know.
Are you at the Hive now?
Thanks. I can probably get just one in my car with the top down. If
folks think we should get several, then I will need to use a different
vehicle. Did you contact the people from craigslist? Maybe we could
get some of each type.
I'm at work now, but I'll head over to the Hive tonight probably around 7ish.
~Dave
I can contact them today. I can get us a large pickup truck tomorrow. That way we can get the other lockers.
We need to find a large 55 gal or larger metal drum that can be put to vacuum.