An Algae Bio Reactor From Recycled Water Bottles

8/8/2019 An Algae Bio Reactor From Recycled Water Bottles

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http://www.instructables.com/id/An-Algae-Bioreactor-from-Recycled-Water-Bottles/

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An Algae Bioreactor from Recycled Water Bottlesby mfischer on February 1, 2009

Table of Contents

License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) .............................................................................

Intro: An Algae Bioreactor from Recycled Water Bottles ................................................................................

step 1: Make Carbon Dioxide Delivery System .......................................................................................

step 2: Attach Tubing to Manifold .................................................................................................

step 3: Mount Carbon Dioxide System .............................................................................................

step 4: Mount Water Bottles .....................................................................................................

step 5: Make Algae Media ......................................................................................................

step 6: Media Inoculation .......................................................................................................

step 7: Growth and Harvesting ...................................................................................................

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License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)

Intro: An Algae Bioreactor from Recycled Water BottlesIn this instructable, we describe how to build a photo-bioreactor that uses algae to convert carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy. The energy that is produced is in theform of algae biomass. The photo-bioreactor is built from plastic recycled water bottles. By designing the apparatus to be compartmentalized, we are able to do manyexperiments in parallel.

Michael Fischermfischer @t stanford.edu

By using algae as a biofuel, we can increase the world's supply of oil while at the same time we decrease the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide used during itsproduction. The resulting product is a sustainable biofuel whose carbon footprint is neutral inasmuch as the CO2 produced on consumption is essentially balanced by theCO2 used in its production. In this instructable, we first make the carbon dioxide delivery system, then mount the water bottles on a rack, and then inoculate the bottles

with algae. After letting the algae grow for a week, we extract the biomass.
http://www.instructables.com/id/An-Algae-Bioreactor-from-Recycled-Water-Bottles/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/


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step 1: Make Carbon Dioxide Delivery SystemTo make the carbon dioxide delivery system, connect an eight port sprinkler system manifold to a one inch long PVC pipe. To get good seals, use Teflon tape to tape thethreads before attaching the pieces together. Next, attach the one inch pipe to a T-connector. Block off one end of the T-connector and attach the other end to a foot longPVC pipe.

step 2: Attach Tubing to ManifoldFor each manifold, cut eight-pieces of flexible tubing and connect each piece to a port of the manifold. The manifold that I am using has a dial on each port to control therate of flow. Make sure all the ports that you use are open and allow approximately the same amount of carbon dioxide to flow through the port.

step 3: Mount Carbon Dioxide SystemMount the air system to a metal rack using zip ties. Attach the air system to a tank of carbon dioxide.


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step 4: Mount Water BottlesHot glue the water bottles to the metal rack.


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step 5: Make Algae MediaWe next make the medium to grow the algae. Although there are many possible mediums, a standard garden store fertilizer contains all the nitrogen and nutrients thatthe algae need.


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step 6: Media InoculationA good source of algae is pond algae, if available. If not, there are a large number of online vendors that sell batches of algae. To inoculate the culture, measure out afixed amount of algae and add it to the growth medium.


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step 7: Growth and HarvestingAfter several days of sunlight and CO2 exposure, the algae are much denser. A French press is then used to extract the algae from the solution. The biomass of the driedalgae can then be used as a fuel. As a by-product of this process, a large amount of atmospheric CO2 is sequestered.

By: Michael Fischer, Stanford University, mfischer @t stanford.edu


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Comments50 comments Add Comment view all 172 comments

bassfishinfreak05 says: Dec 2, 2010. 7:58 AM REPOk, you say in your video once you have the algae you centrifuge the algae to get a cake and then press it for the oil. I have a couple centrifuges and haveaccess to a press.. What do you do with the oil once you have it pressed from the cake? Do you just pour it in the tank?

beehard44 says: Dec 2, 2010. 8:06 AM REPmaybe you need to use lye to turn it into biodiesel

Lt.Greg says: Dec 2, 2010. 6:48 AM REPMichael;Pray tell - just how does this device "increase" the world's supply of oil?You maybe got a couple of dinosaurs in your back pocket?:-)P
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dawgz031 says: Jan 15, 2010. 9:10 PM REPwow...this is a really nice step to reduce global warming when connected to the co2 scrubber....the co2 scrubber gets the co2 in the air...then it is feed to the algae......and more i saw some article about specific algae that can be cultured so it can beused as a fuel or something when it is processed...

but there are still questions about the process on how to transform algae to a fuel.....and how to extract co2 of caustic soda....

can some on please help me???is there some one who know more about caustic soda and algae???

campbellu2002 says: Sep 6, 2010. 10:39 AM REPAnd here is your transformation :D http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-your-Honda-Accord-to-run-on-trash/

Arano says: Jul 19, 2010. 4:01 PM REPNa2CO3 + water +heat transforms to NaOH+co2 one of the easiest ways to transform your algae into somehting useful would be heating it up whichwould transform the algae into coal and burnable gases

hamraddude says: Aug 26, 2010. 8:05 PM REPI would just dump the algae on my compost heap... the harvested CO2 would then remain sequestered no?

OverSaltedFry says: Dec 28, 2009. 3:51 AM REPI do like this idea

Assumin it would somehow et enou h sunli ht, would it be possible to put this in the trunk of a car so the exaust bubbles throu h a bunch of bottles?

darkknight671 says: May 25, 2010. 1:46 PM REPIn addition to being too hot, auto-exhaust also contains CO - Carbon Monoxide and NO2 - Nitrous Oxide - both of which would also kill the algae. Badidea.

tekym says: Apr 27, 2010. 8:20 PM REPThat'll melt your bottles, along with probably boiling the water and killing the algae. Exhaust is extremely hot.

kingmii says: Jul 6, 2010. 8:19 PM REPwhat if you found away to bottled the exhaust and then added it to the algae at home one it had cooled.

tekym says: Jul 6, 2010. 9:29 PM REP

As the comment above mine says, car exhaust contains carbon monoxide and nitrous oxides in addition to carbon dioxide, and CO and NOxwould both be lethal to the algae. This in addition to it being impractical to try to bottle exhaust; cars output literally pounds of the stuff, and tobottle it would require a pressurization system and pressure bottles like many pure gases come in already. It's more complicated than it's worth,even if it would work.

kingmii says: Jul 6, 2010. 11:02 PM REPI suppose your right It's just a suggestion i herd in an ethanol documentary. It would be awesome to make this into a carbon negative fuel.

FlySEED says: May 15, 2010. 7:17 PM REPCheck www.carolina.com

They have quite the selection

RelientOwl says: May 13, 2010. 1:52 PM REPWhere did you get your eight-port sprinkler system?

photis22 says: Feb 7, 2009. 8:27 PM REPthis is a good design, being that it recycles the bottles, but a little impractical, the ones I make at home use 2.5 inch clear pvc tubing to grow the algae in, anda small fluorescent tube light inside which is protected by a water-proof cover, this provides maximum lighting, this design also includes a single powerful air-pump which provides high air pressure to feed multiple tubes, i run it on CO2 released from my hot water heater, but eventually you need to stress in tocreate maximum oil content, you also need to think about the species you should use, botryococcus braunii tends to have up to 50% oil content if treatedproperly, but only 2% of that oil, or oil in almost any algae can be used for biodiesel, another algae you might use is chlorrela which is a green algae know tohave heavy nutrient levels, which can be made into fertilizer or health drinks , both spiceis can be purchased at utex.edu, the UT campus website, where oneof the largest algae depositories in the world is located
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Nyxius says: Jan 26, 2010. 8:49 AM REPAwsome tip! Thanks!

nickk says: Apr 9, 2009. 12:46 AM REPHello Is algae oil suitable to be used as cooking oil ? does it have any strange taste or odor ? what color is the oil ?

Nyxius says: Jan 26, 2010. 8:47 AM REPalgae is suitable for cooking. however, it does have a peculiar taste of it's own (like olive oil). one important note is that if you plan on using your algaefor this, you might want to consider using filtered humic acid from a compost pile instead of fertilizer. most fertilizers are not meant to be ingested and can

make you very ill.

___ says: Aug 16, 2009. 11:59 AM REPyou wouldnt want to eat this because of the fertiliser that help the algae grow

nickk says: Aug 16, 2009. 4:12 PM REPi asked to see if the idea of producing commercial cooking oil out of farmed algae is possible.

Mach5 says: May 19, 2009. 7:12 PM REPYes algae oil can be used for cooking. I have no clue as to flavor but I have seen a video of a man eating a brownie made with it and another ofresearchers drinking it straight.

remeika says: Feb 5, 2009. 7:58 PM REPCan algae be grown in slowly moving water? If so, perhaps algae could be pumped from bottle to bottle and then through a central collection device thatwould skim off some algae, add fertilizer, and then pump a algae inoculation and new fertilizer back into the system... I realize that I need to stophypothesizing about a new feature on this site and just build it!

ampeyro says: May 27, 2009. 7:41 AM REPi've been working on a idea like this, with polycarbonate (like the used in vindows), but i chosed the wrong algae

Emilie06 says: Oct 20, 2009. 9:27 AM REPhey , do you know wich algae is the right algae for this progect?

ampeyro says: Oct 22, 2009. 1:48 AM REPi tried with haematococcus, the problem was that it turned into a brown and red paste, the other candidates are some chlorocoous, and maybeany kund of blue algae(i abandoned the project because the summer ended, and in the next year will continue it, i didn't find my notebook abut it ,so the names could not be exact)(sorry for the ortography, i'm not native english)

Nyxius says: Jan 26, 2010. 8:26 AM REPthis is a great tip, thanks. I've actually had a very sim idea to remeika's. What if U used a chain bubbler like in the vid, but connected thebottles and then used the slow water flow. something convection powered? that way highest growth rate would be furthest from the harvestingsource & would maximize absorption.

auroraoutdoorlighting says: Apr 12, 2009. 4:33 AM REPYes, it can be grown in slowly moving water. In fact, watch this video:http://www.valcent.net/s/Ecotech.asp?ReportID=182039

I think this guy is on to something big. Have you built anything similar? Would love to see it.

p07gbar says: Jul 17, 2009. 8:28 AM REPThat is brilliant.

luke96 says: Nov 29, 2009. 12:11 PM REPI could not find al ae for sale on line.

amateur6 says: Feb 3, 2009. 2:51 AM REPI love it! But... "The biomass of the dried algae can then be used as a fuel." Isn't that a little "Step 2 -- then a miracle occurs"-ish? I guess I was hoping for alittle more, teased by the word "bioreactor". After all, if we simply burn the dried algae (just as an example), all the CO2 sequestering we've done is fornaught. Thanks though!
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Mother Natures Son says: Feb 19, 2009. 11:44 AM REPActually, burning it would probably release less CO2 than just letting it decay--I'm not certain, mind, but it seems like some carbon would remainsequestered in the ashes. Yes? No?

OruKun says: Dec 5, 2009. 11:44 PM REPCan i put the bio mass into my care in substitute for diesel? IF not what is the purpose or possibility for using this fuel source if uts in such smalllquantities?

OruKun says: Dec 5, 2009. 11:48 PM REPSorry car, can it be used to fuel my car....

Baiji says: Oct 19, 2009. 10:57 AM REPUnless an organic medium is not burned completely, what you have left after a complete burn is all the inorganic material. The organic stuff burnsaway.

kingalexl says: Feb 23, 2009. 11:34 AM REPyou are correct.... ashes are mostly carbon i believe...

A good name says: Mar 7, 2009. 10:01 PM REPThe one thing you have to understand is that there's a limited amount of matter in the earth and basically matter just goes through phases. Forinstance, a body will eventually decay into soil.

PKM says: Feb 3, 2009. 5:31 AM REPI think the mention of sequestering is confusing the issue slightly. Sequestration only works when atmospheric carbon is fixed by plants and then stays inthe ecosystem as plant or animal matter, as opposed to carbon-neutral fuels.

If you plant a tree, it sucks some carbon out of the air to grow, and when it dies the carbon it contains (in theory) stays in the ecosystem as it isconsumed by fungi, woodlice, other plants etc. for them to grow. By doing this we are (again in theory) balancing the carbon that is coming out of theground and into the air by mining fossil fuels.

The alternative use for plants is " carbon-neutral " fuel. Burning the algae biomass will release CO 2 , but that carbon came out of the air in the first place

so the balance isn't changed overall. Using carbon-neutral fuel is never going to decrease the percentage of CO 2 in the air, but i t doesn't contribute as

much as digging stuff out of the ground to burn.

As for using the biomass for fuel, I was under the impression that the algae sludge was basically crushed and separated- the algae contain vegetable oil,which you can skim off and use for making biodiesel or whatever, and the rest is a watery goop full of plant matter and so on that would ideally go backinto the reactor to fertilise the next batch. The ideal sort of algae would be one that readily separates into pure hydrocarbons and pure fertiliser.

Nyxius says: Jan 26, 2010. 8:11 AM REPThe most efficient use of algae grown in this manner is to be fed into a bio-refiner. Anaerobic respiration breaks the fuel oil down into alcohol andlactic acid (depending on process & bacteria used). another highly efficient use would be to use the algae in an electrical bio-reactor where theprocess of anaerobic respiration is slaved to produce electricity.

photis22 says: Feb 7, 2009. 8:32 PM REPno algae can instantly separate into hydrocarbons or fertilizer, while some algae might contain hydrocarbons they are in such a small ammount thatthey cant really be utilized, what you can do though is grow the algae under such ideal conditions that when the cells die they release a fair ammountof oil into the water, if you can havest this before the rest of the algea consumes it you have an economican way of reteiving oil

frollard says: Apr 22, 2009. 10:51 PM REPAccording to the guy with a lab coat and a bunch of microscopes linked in the video by aurora above says algae biomass is up to 50%hydrocarbon lipids.

Entropy512 says: Jul 9, 2009. 10:20 AM REPOnly certain specific algae species. These species are at an evolutionary disadvantage compared to species which use more of the mass toreproduce instead of store oil. As a result, one of the main impediments towards large-scale algae biodiesel farms is, as I understand it, thedifficulty of keeping the bioreactor from getting contaiminated with species less suitable to biodiesel production. Now for home use, where onemight burn the carcasses to heat your home in a carbon-neutral manner rather than try to make biodiesel, many of these issues may be moot.

PKTraceur says: Apr 11, 2009. 5:33 PM REPLongest.... sentence... EVER! Great information though, above and below this comment. -PKT
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12/13


siedentopf says: Feb 5, 2009. 7:02 PM REPI think your missing the point. I also don't understand what your concern is over the word usage of "Sequestration" as he used it. It's a fact not all thecarbon that the algae would be taken up by the oil taken from the algae, so some is sequestered. Sequestered doesn't have to mean it's for everlocked into a chunk of wood, to be sequestered; I feel he is using the word to describe a small part of the process. Also this is above carbon neutralon the green side because is I pointed out before not all the carbon the plant takes in is taken out by removing it's oils. Or don't you get that? I reallydon't understand how you could talk so much about what he says when really it's a plant oil and not a vegetable oil as you so mistakenly call it. Or isit bad of me to point out your own error? Get a grip he did a fair job, at least he didn't call it veggie oil. Now that would be dumb. It should be calledalgae oil, don't you think?

oilsRus says: Feb 9, 2009. 10:04 PM REPThere are 3 basic types of oil in this world- 1- Mineral- petroleum (black gold, Texas tea) 2- Animal -lard, tallow, poultry fat - (all act like oils above125 degrees) 3- Vegetable oils - this includes seed oils like Soybean, Peanut and Sunflower, Nut oils like Coconut palm Kernel and Walnut, germ

oils from Wheat and Corn germ - any and every plant oil in the world is a vegetable oil and has a value, use and thus a market. Algae oil is avegetable oil just as canola is. It will be traded as such and it will replace Soy, Canola, and Palm oils in Biodiesel production. This will be a goodthing.

PKM says: Feb 6, 2009. 3:59 AM REPI think you misunderstand me- I wasn't saying the Instructable was wrong, just that there existed possible confusion because of the combinationof the sentencesThe biomass of the dried algae can then be used as a fuel. As a by-product of this process, a large amount of atmospheric CO2 is sequestered.

As I understand it, sequestration involves absorbing atmospheric CO 2 and storing it, carbon neutral fuels involve creating fuels from atmospheric

CO 2 so the net contribution is zero. I was just trying to clarify a possible misconception that the same atmospheric carbon won't be both

sequestered and go into fuel. My point was just that any carbon sequestered reduces the oil yield, because there is no "something for nothing"-see Calladus' comment, the algae will either sequester or be a carbon-neutral fuel, depending on how it is used, but not both simultaneously . Aminor point really.

And of course you're not wrong to point out my error, but I don't see what the problem is- I can't find a concrete difference in the definition of plantoil and vegetable oil, other than that through received usage there may be an assumption that "vegetable oil" means edible crop oils (olive, corn,rape etc).

The intro to the Wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_oil or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil ) says " Vegetable fats and oils are lipid materials derived from plants ", so if we include photosynthetic algae under a broad definition of "plant" I don't see the problem. If you cangive me a more precise definition then I might be able to correct the error.

siedentopf says: Feb 6, 2009. 8:31 PM REPOh come on, you'll jump on a broad definition to save your hide between veggie and algae oils but you can't rap your mind around the ideathat not all the carbon used in making the algae, is used to make the oil. I don't care of you pump the CO2 into the ground and it sits thereuntil the sun goes red and eats the earth. The only true "forever sequestration" happens in a black hole. So they say anyway, I question thatone. However we are not on that subject.

Not all the CO2 that the algae takes in gets converted to oil, some is sequestered. He used the term correctly. Everyone else I have evertalked with calls algae oil not veggie oil. Your the only one I seen do that. If you wanted to say plant oil you should of said so. At least youdidn't call it corn oil.

I'm not going to sit here and debate this with you any longer. If you want to pull out the definition of sequestered also from Wikipedia it says"CO2 sequestration, the storage of carbon dioxide in a solid material through biological or physical processes " seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequestration That is what he did isn't it? I didn't see it say anything about it having to be forever, or in a 100%fashion. He did what he said he did. The only one confused by the usage of the word is you, or so it seems to me.

So in every sense of the word he used it correctly, as I said it's pointless to debate this with you. Case closed. Try not to just look up terms tocover what you think is right. If you feel a need to debate something, other then to just post, look up what your about to step into just as muchas you do to cover your self, after. Save the rest of us the stress please. Have a nice day. I'm not responding to you again, there just is noneed for it. Your wrong.

PKM says: Feb 7, 2009. 5:39 AM REPThe only one confused by the usage of the word is you, or so it seems to me.So in every sense of the word he used it correctly

Again, if you read my last post closely you will see I never said he used it incorrectly, I was just trying to prevent a possible misconceptionthat people who are unfamiliar with the subject might have had, that you seem to think I am also making. I never said the Instructablewas wrong - so I don't see what the argument is about.

Everyone else I have ever talked with calls algae oil not veggie oil. Your the only one I seen do that. If you wanted to say plant oil you should of said so.

Arguing by numbers doesn't make it correct- look at all the people who say "I could care less" or "irregardless", both widespread butnonsensical phrases that mean the opposite of what the speaker intends.

I did want to say plant oil and as far as I can tell, "vegetable oil" and "plant oil" being interchangeable terms for plant-derived lipids, I did.Again, if there is a concrete difference in the definitions of the terms "vegetable oil" and "plant oil" then please point it out to me, I couldn'tfind one. I refrained from using "algae oil" because it's a tautology- obviously algae produce algae oil , but if you are not familiar with algaeoil already it doesn't tell you anything. I used "vegetable oil" because i t's a descriptive term that more people are familiar with, and as faras I can tell is scientifically accurate. Fail to see the problem.
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Nyxius says: Jan 26, 2010. 8:20 AM REPif you want to debate on the proper use of English, either go to an English how to website, or go to France. The point of the matter isthis process creates oil and it is useful. I'm not trying to offend anyone, but legal word usage is best left to lawyers.

servant74 says: Feb 7, 2009. 7:10 PM REPFrom the commercial stuff I have been reading on using algae, personally it sounds like squeezing out the lipids (veggie oil equivalent)and burying the remaining algae 'carcass' would get some of the oil out and allow sequestering quite a bit of CO2. If you do somethingelse with the 'carcass' material, like use it as animal feed, or break it down into sugars to ferment into something else then the CO2comes back out into the environment. Sequestration is nice, but the continued or re-use of the material makes the process carbonneutral over some period of time. To bring down the CO2 levels in the atmosphere, sequestration of some form is needed, if that is thegoal. If a higher level of energy independence is the goal, using this technique anyway, the sequestration may need to be moderated.... It seems noting we do is done in isolation, and the formulas will always balance out in the end. I do appreciate the instructable. Who

is up for the 'squeeze lipids/oil out of algae' one? :)

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