Tagalgae

First Algae Powered Building Goes Up In Germany

world's first algae powered building

From the press release:

A 15-unit apartment building has been constructed in the German city of Hamburg that has 129 algae filled louvered tanks hanging over the exterior of the south-east and south-west sides of the building—making it the first in the world to be powered exclusively by algae. Designed by Arup, SSC Strategic Science Consultants and Splitterwerk Architects, and named the Bio Intelligent Quotient (BIQ) House, the building demonstrates the ability to use algae as a way to heat and cool large buildings.

Full Story: PhysOrg: First Algae Powered Building Goes Up In Hamburg

See also: Are Algae the DIY Answer to Fuel & Food Crises?

Offshore, carbon-negative algae-power on the cheap

OMEGA Systems - algae

The NASA-developed technology, called OMEGA (Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae) is a low-cost and low-tech method for growing algae. Unlike other approaches to growing algae, which require construction of massive energy-intensive facilities, OMEGAs are relatively inexpensive. OMEGAs are inflatable plastic membranes filled with processed wastewater, CO2 gas, and freshwater algae. OMEGAs float in water, and can be anchored off the coast of any ocean or salt lake. As the algae grow, using the energy of the sun, they convert wastewater and CO2 into biomass, and oxygen. OMEGA’s uniquely utilize forward-osmosis membranes to permeate purified water out of the OMEGA and into the surrounding water.

Oilgae: NASA Launches with Algae Systems on Eve Of COP 15: Carbon-negative Fuel from Sewage and CO2

Algae Systems web site

More info on OMEGA

See also:

Gasification, terra preta, and mechabolics: carbon negative fuels?

Technoccult posts tagged algae, especially how to build your own algae reactor.

The Futurist Magazine’s Top 10 Forecasts for 2010 and Beyond

1. Your phone will tell you when you’re in love.
2. In the design economy of the future, people will download and print their own products, including auto parts, jewelry, and even the kitchen sink.
3. The era of brain-to-brain telepathy dawns.
4. Tomorrow’s inventors will spend their days writing descriptions of the problems they want to solve, and then letting computers find the solutions.
5. Micronations built on artificial islands will dramatically shift the face of global politics.
6. Young people will read more, and the old will play more video games.
7. Ammonia may become the fuel of choice for cars by 2020.
8. Algae may become the new oil.
9. Radical methods of altering the planet may be the only way to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
10. The existence of extraterrestrial life will be confirmed or conclusively denied within a generation.

The Futurist Magazine’s Top 10 Forecasts for 2010 and Beyond

(Thanks Pink Tentacle)

There are many more forecasts other than the top ten at this link.

I find #s 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 10 doubtful. Nine is quite possible, but doubt it will be successful. I find this scenario more probable than 2 as described. I find 6 probable, and hope 8 is correct.

Algae Bioreactors as public art

algae bioreactors as public art

Emergent Architecture is, as Grinding puts it, finding “the sweet spot between public art and alternative energy.”

Ecofriend: Solar-powered Photobioreactor generates biofuel using algae

(via Grinding)

Venice To Get Half Its Electricity From Algae By 2011

The city of Venice hopes to get at least 50 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by the year 2011. It plans to use algae to generate electricity.
Venice, known as the City of Bridges, plans to end its reliance on fossil fuels in the near future by primarily using biofuels.

As a first step the city officials have invested €200 million ($264 million) for a biofuels plant. They will use two types of algae, Sargassum muticum and Undaria pinnafitida. They will cultivate them in laboratories, which will then be used to generate electricity in a new 40 MW power plant. This plant will provide up to 50 per cent of the city’s electricity needs.

Full Story: Venice To Get Half Its Electricity From Algae By 2011

(Thanks Nova)

How to build your own algae reactors

algae bioreactor

So I wanted to put together a simple example of a bio reactor using simple off the shelf parts and aquarium parts available from nearly any big chain store to make a simple reactor on the cheap. This is the most basic algae reactor design overall and while I used some glass containers for my reactor other ideal containers would be an empty 2 leader bottle or plastic milk jug. This design is really perfect for backup cultures or to keep unique strings of algae’s to start larger reactors off. Using simple off the shelf parts and aquarium parts available from nearly any big chain store these days you can make this simple reactor on the cheap.

Instructions and more projects: AlgaeGeek

(via Grinding)

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