Growing Algae...

[Savvypro]

Just found a power point which covers a lot of the research done comparing ponds vs bioreactors. (see: The World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing).

For small scale systems, bioreactors are better - but for large scale production - there is not much difference except for cost. A lot of commercial bioreactor "farms" shut down or end up rarely being used. One was setup at a cost of more than $1 million and closed after 2 weeks.

[Savvypro]

The last reference document (i0424e00.pdf) I linked to in my first post is very interesting.
On page 11 there is a formula for a cheap medium which performs just as well as the Zarrouk medium.

On page 13 it talks about how light is the limiting factor during summer, when self shading is highest. If anyone has seen the alcohol can be a gas video, there is a section in it where David Blume states that in monoculture fields, the cops can only use something like 30% of the light during the day. That by mid morning the crops just shutdown as they have received too much light to process. Spirulina looks to do something similar.

Some interesting quotes:

When the cells were grown under red light illumination, β-carotene content was highest followed by that under blue light and white light, respectively.

It was also found that β-carotene content was increased with increasing NaCl in the medium.

On page 14:

The photosynthetic activity of the culture grown at 25 ºC was directed more
towards carbohydrate synthesis than toward protein synthesis.

A temp of 35ºC produces more protein, while the lower 25ºC results in more carbohydrates.

Also the lower temp results in a greater over night loss than the 35ºC culture. At 35ºC you produce more Spirulina at harvest time than you would if you had grown it at 25ºC. I'm just paraphrasing here but it's all covered in the first part of page 14.

[Savvypro]

Here’s an interesting way to use IBC tanks to grow large volumes of algae:

YouTube - algae bioreactor at night

If only you could get clear see through IBC's.

[Savvypro]

Here's a very interesting bioreactor design.

YouTube - PYRAMID PHOTOBIOREACTOR

The claims made about the design of the system don't seam to tally, until you really watch the video.

The Pyramids only hold the algae while they are in what I’m calling the solar bathing zone. Underneath the Pyramids, you’ll see a storage tank that holds the larger part of the water volume. The large volume of the system prevents sudden heat fluctuations, as you’ll get in a smaller volume system. The bioreactor just reminds me of a aquarium + sump setup that's just been adapted to grow algae.

The whole volume of water is cycled through the Pyramids to receive sunlight, then back to the storage tank. Which seams like a good way to prevent the algae from self shading, and not having the sun, be the limiting factor in the summer.

The makers claim that with their design one could produce up to 1.45g per liter, a 100 tons capacity system would produce 145kg per day in 60 square meters of space.

They have a pdf on their website that compares different systems, below I've listed the productivity figures for each system (as stated in their pdf):

Well system = 0.9g per liter, a 100 tons capacity well system would produce 90kg per day in 25 square meters of space.

Tubular system = 0.8g per liter, a 100 tons capacity tubular system would produce 80kg per day in 1200 square meters of space.

Plastic bag system = 0.6g per liter, a 100 tons capacity plastic bag system would produce 60kg per day in 1200 square meters of space.

Closed pond system (ponds in side green house) = 0.35g per liter, a 100 tons capacity closed pond system would produce 35kg per day in 250 square meters of space.

Open pond system (not in green house) = 0.35g per liter, a 100 tons capacity open pond system would produce 35kg per day in 250 square meters of space.

If I had the space and a suitable location. I'd get 2 or 3 new unused IBC tanks or some other food grade water storage tanks. Build 2 or 3 acrylic flat plate photobioreactors, and setup 2 or 3 1,000+ litre systems. Even if my design could only produce half the daily amount - about 0.73g per liter a day, that would still be a lot if you had 2 or 3 1,000+ liter capacity systems. Lets say a nice round 1kg a day from just 2 systems.

[Savvypro]

In a previous post, I talked about using uplift tubes - on the following page you can see how to build them: The DIY air lift

Here's one in action: YouTube - DIY air pump powered filter

Things to keep in mind are:

Keep the right angle bends (or any sharp bends) to a minimum, as your moving water through the tubes.

The higher you want to lift the water, the more air you're air pump will need to pump.

A good example is the following video: YouTube - Pump water with air where the water comes out in spurts compared to the previous video.

Don't forget your non return valves on the air tube.

[life4living]

You must be an expert on this by now, Savvy. Looking forward to the idiots guide. Or is it already up?

Seriously, any luck on UK culture sources?

[Savvypro]

Vic,

Most of the information needed is listed and linked to, in this thread.

The biggest problem is the culture sources. I don't really want to go down the culture lab route, as they are not really geared to selling to non companies/institutions. You should see some of the prices they charge for just 15ml of culture. Then you have the shipping - they don't skimp on that. At some labs if you just order one culture, the shipping is the same cost as the culture.

I've found the original culture that Cyanotech grow (it's listed in one of the pdf's in their research section). It's UTEX culture 1926. Importing it into the UK could be problematic, I’d need to look at the UK import regulations. But only after UTEX have sorted out their contamination issue that they state on their site. Culture 1926 seams to be one of those that currently can’t be ordered.

My preference would be to buy from someone that is already growing and eating the stuff - rather than buying cultures from a lab.

I'm currently waiting for a reply to an email I sent to the Antenna Technologies Foundation (I’ve linked to some of their information above), I’ve read that they may be able to supply Spirulina.


On a different note:
I just came across the following paper: Effects of using light-emitting diodes on the cultivation of Spirulina platensis by Chih-Yu Wang; Chun-Chong Fu; Yung-Chuan Liu

Abstract:

Various light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with different light wavelengths and illumination intensities were employed to explore the effects of light source on photoautotrophic cultivation of Spirulina platensis. From the experimental results, red LED exhibited the highest specific growth rate of 0.40 (day−1) under the condition of 3000 μmol m−2 s−1. Blue LED showed the least efficiency in the conversion of photon to biomass. Hence, a modified Monod model was proposed to fit the specific growth rates of S. platensis from different light sources. The light intensity threshold for minimum photoautotrophic growth was also determined. In comparing the economic efficiency of energy to biomass, the use of red LED gave the most effective performance for the photoautotrophic cultivation.

I've only been able to read the above, don't have access to an online library like JSTOR or Sciencedirect - who want $39.95 from me, just to be able to read the full text. I could buy the article, but it's on a list of about 10 others that I would like to access and read. That money could be better spent on obtaining and growing Spirulina, and learning for myself.

Anyway back to the paper and what little is given away in the abstract. It seams to confirm what I read in another paper (I'm unable to find it now), it stated that blue light resulted in an increase in cell division (more Spirulina) while red would result in bigger Spirulina. So you would use blue light (blue LED's) to increase the numbers of Spirulina and red light (red LED's) to grow the Spirulina.

On a different note, I've done the figures on making the Zarrouk medium (you can see the formula here: http://www.zju.edu.cn/jzus/2006/B0601/B060106.pdf). I tried to do the figures based on getting 1kg amounts of each chemical component (just to make it simple). To keep the ratio, you'd need to buy a 25kg bag of Sodium Bicarbonate (cheapest way of getting 18kg of the stuff, only costs £27 on ebay with delivery). The total cost would be about £240 (about $380.711 [1 GBP = 1.58629 USD] at the time of this post), this is a upper end ballpark figure, as not a lot of "trace elements" chemicals would be required.

In fact more than half the £240: £130 is just for the "trace elements" chemicals. Half that figure is just for one ingredient (which also happened to be the hardest to find): (NH4)6Mo7O24- Ammonium molybdate. I found it on a lab supply website, costs £67.47 for just 250g of the stuff (the smallest amount they sell). The kicker is that you would only need 0.02g of the stuff.

I’ve been thinking about just substituting the "trace elements" with something else (diluted sea minerals) so as to save on the cost. Even at £240 it would still be £8.89 per kg of made medium. From what I’ve read, the medium is added at roughly 1g of medium per 1g of Spirulina produced.

If I were to get 20 lbs of sea minerals (to make an the alternitive "trace elements" solution), it would cost about £56. I would then have a cost of £6.15 per kg of Zarrouk medium.

Anyone know if you can buy Spirulina in the shops at less than £10 ($15.86) a kg.

[Savvypro]

The paper that I linked to above in the previous post compares the use of the Zarrouk medium (as the control) against that of human urine, as well as synthetic human urine. The aim is to see if Spirulina could be grown using human urine on long term space missions. As a means of food production, oxygen production and filtering of waste.

If anyone is looking for a very cheap way of growing Spirulina - that's the paper to read.

[Savvypro]

Below is the formula, as well as the costs for the cheap medium that I referenced in post 17:

RM6 medium (on page 11 of the last referenced document, in my first post):

1.25 g/litre - single super phosphate: 2.5kg £8.20 (1kg = £3.28)
2.50 g/litre - sodium nitrate: 1kg £11.49
0.98 g/litre - muriate of potash: 2.5kg £8.45 (1kg = £3.38)
0.50 g/litre - sodium chloride: 1kg £13.59
0.15 g/litre - magnesium sulfate: 3kg £6.12 (1kg = £2.04)
0.04 g/litre - calcium chloride: 1kg £8.83
8 g/litre - sodium bicarbonate: 1kg £5.50

[Savvypro]

Just got a reply from Antenna Technologies Foundation. Their email states that they don't supply Spirulina.

Its funny as in their documentation section in Cultivez votre spiruline, it states in section 5.1 that one can obtain 100% pure culture from 2 places, one of them being Antenna.

I'll be replying to their email asking them if they mean Spirulina end product or Spirulina cultures - which is what I asked about.

[Alex_from_russia]

Hi Savvy!

I wish to develop the cheap house-biogenerator for Spirulina. I am very surprised that on the Internet so a lot of information about Spirulina, but so a little real business.
I study a question of illumination with LED. At present I work with orchids and seaweed in an aquarium. I use in work light XREWHT-L1--0000-005e7, LZ4-00R210, XPCROY-L1--0000-00801.

I have some ideas on own device of the compact biogenerator with as much as possible low power consumption and the automatic control of processes c MC. (including some automatic chemical tests can be)
There is one more problem about which you speak earlier, it is purchase (or manufacturing) mixes Zarrouk and purchase of alive culture.

The some stamms can be found in Russia (even free of charge Спирулина. Разработки отдела биотехнологий и фиторе�ур�ов, but with chemical fertilizers we have greater problems.. This question for me the most cdifficult....

[Alex_from_russia]

upss!
there is so a lot of mistakes. Sorry.

[Savvypro]

Alex,

I think I understood what your saying - lots of info on the net, very very few business selling the stuff.

On the LED's - I'm leaning towards just using red and blue LED's to supplement natural day light. The reason being is that even on cloudy days here in London, my south facing windows still get a lot of light. And this year so far there have been a lot of cloudless days, well almost - it starts off without clouds, then the white plains come out and spry the sky resulting in the afternoon and evening ends with clouds.

I've noticed that the patterns of the chem trails have changed. It's almost like their playing noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) in the sky. A couple of weeks ago it looked like they were marking targets (X marks the spot kind of thing) for satellites or something space based..

Anyway back to your last bit.

It seams that we have mutually solvable problems - I can easily get and make medium but not the culture. While you can get the culture but have problems getting and making medium.

[Alex_from_russia]

I look at this theme from the point of view of " independent and continuous system ".
This approach demands the deep analysis of processes. It will spend a lot of time.

Except for making solutions I should solve many questions for myself.

1 - windows are everywhere different. Except for this there are places where windows are not present in general.

2 - " my windows still get a lot of light " is it how many? At my east window there is a maximum 2000Lx for 2 hours per day and 200Lx inside of a room. It is very insufficiently for my desire. Photosynthesis to be braked completely in this case.

My orchid blooms inside of a dark corner of room with a daylight 30Lx + 15W red and 5W dark blue LED for 12 hours per day. It is an equivalent to day time illumination HD-lamp 150W. But LED is colder and convenient, whether not so?

3. Quality and quantity of a product algaes depends from Ph, concentration of fertilizer, CO2, parities of Dark blue and Red light.
Or you really wish to eat sick and poisonous algaes?


4. Illumination from the external side of the biogenerator is not economically. A lot of light is sprayed in space around. LED allows to utilize all light and warmly. For example, if to place LEDs in tubes inside of the biogenerator.
It is greater grief that qualitative LEDs is very expensive... But I wish to trust - The game is worth the candles! (or is not and I am crasy )
In any case, waste of money for a hobby it is not insulting.

If to speak about " easily get and make medium but not the cultur " and opposite, that is problems: the frontier between the Europe and russian " a black hole " is the big obstacle. Fertilizers and a biological material will be blocked.

Nevertheless, I shall study this question since without fertilizers my ideas will be destroyed...

This theme is very interesting to me. I shall continue it to dig.

ps/ do you really could collect elements for preparation of medium Zarrouk? That you think about be a smuggler

[Savvypro]

I look at this theme from the point of view of " independent and continuous system ".
This approach demands the deep analysis of processes. It will spend a lot of time.

Except for making solutions I should solve many questions for myself.

1 - windows are everywhere different. Except for this there are places where windows are not present in general.

2 - " my windows still get a lot of light " is it how many? At my east window there is a maximum 2000Lx for 2 hours per day and 200Lx inside of a room. It is very insufficiently for my desire. Photosynthesis to be braked completely in this case.

My orchid blooms inside of a dark corner of room with a daylight 30Lx + 15W red and 5W dark blue LED for 12 hours per day. It is an equivalent to day time illumination HD-lamp 150W. But LED is colder and convenient, whether not so?

3. Quality and quantity of a product algaes depends from Ph, concentration of fertilizer, CO2, parities of Dark blue and Red light.
Or you really wish to eat sick and poisonous algaes?


4. Illumination from the external side of the biogenerator is not economically. A lot of light is sprayed in space around. LED allows to utilize all light and warmly. For example, if to place LEDs in tubes inside of the biogenerator.
It is greater grief that qualitative LEDs is very expensive... But I wish to trust - The game is worth the candles! (or is not and I am crasy )
In any case, waste of money for a hobby it is not insulting.

If to speak about " easily get and make medium but not the cultur " and opposite, that is problems: the frontier between the Europe and russian " a black hole " is the big obstacle. Fertilizers and a biological material will be blocked.

Nevertheless, I shall study this question since without fertilizers my ideas will be destroyed...

This theme is very interesting to me. I shall continue it to dig.

ps/ do you really could collect elements for preparation of medium Zarrouk? That you think about be a smuggler

On the light issue, I was commenting on my situation. In yours I would agree that you would need to use artificial light - but remember that when it comes to Spirulina: light is the limiting factor. More light, does not mean more growth.

Even though you may get limited sunlight, it’s still free - so why not use it.

On point 3, you state the following:

3. Quality and quantity of a product algaes depends from Ph, concentration of fertilizer, CO2, parities of Dark blue and Red light.

Or you really wish to eat sick and poisonous algaes?

You can grow Spirulina in low PH, the reason for the high PH: is that it results in an environment that only Spirulina can grow in - making it much safer if you will.

Not everyone adds CO2, as the Spirulina can get it’s carbon from sodium bicarbonate, which is why the mediums I’ve listed above have sodium bicarbonate concentrations much higher than the other parts of the medium.

For Dark blue and red light - more light frequencies is always going to be better. But when your in a limited situation - you use what you have.

On the medium - I said nothing about smuggling, nor would one have to.