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We already eat various forms of algae. Some are quite nutritious, some give us tummy troubles, some at excellent sinks for CO2. I'm very curious if we could ma
by socialismisok 4y ago
We already eat various forms of algae. Some are quite nutritious, some give us tummy troubles, some at excellent sinks for CO2.
I'm very curious if we could mass manufacture something like algae and then pyrolize it to get fuel and solid carbon to sequester.
If we find some good ideas for kelp, there's whole coastlines whose kelp forests have been decimated. We could start propagating and sustainably harvesting it and provide an incredibly rich coastal habitat.
- RajT88 4y agoI have seen some youtubers make kelp pickles. They seem to find it delicious. https://youtu.be/SXhXK2CcCic https://youtu.be/SXhXK2CcCic
- ispo 4y agoWe do and the flavours are ridiculously good, but the price of the material is prohibitive, often around 90 € per kg.
- RajT88 4y agoAre you buying the kelp? That's the only way I can get that to add up. The folks on youtube all seem to just harvest it wild.
- ispo 4y agoYes, it reaches me from Portugal and Spain, several algae I tried, all delicious and truly bringing my sauces to the next level. Edit: currently I am in a landlocked region.
- yawgmoth 4y agoI recently bought an Algae Powered CO2 scrubber. No idea how effective it is, I wonder what the easiest way to measure is?
- antisthenes 4y agoA CO2 meter? ...
- yawgmoth 4y agoYeah! I was thinking "ah the room isn't sealed, nor is the house for that matter" but I can probably get interesting measurements with a simple CO2 meter.
- NavinF 4y agoCO2 meter and a 30 gallon garbage bag to seal the meter inside along with the algae?
- K2h 4y agoIf you try to measure CO2 usage, be aware of the fineprint in your sensor, depending on the sensor it may just take the lowest reading over some period and self calibrate (incorrectly) as normal air CO2 concentration (~400ppm) <https://www.extech.com/products/CO240 https://www.extech.com/products/CO240> Automatic CO2 Baseline Calibration (ABC) The ABC algorithm continually tracks the sensor’s lowest reading over a fixed time interval and slowly corrects for any long-term drift (as compared to the expected fresh air value of 400ppm). The ABC period is 15 days, during which the ABC function default is always on.
- antisthenes 4y agoYou could also drain the water and measure the weight of the algae.
- slavik81 4y agoThe CO2 that it absorbs has to be stored. Measure the change in weight.
- ajmurmann 4y agoI looked into this for a few minutes when a huge algae CO2 scrubber in am airport was discussed a few weeks back. The short is that it does close to nothing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33173230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33173230 It's too bad because one of my weird dreams would be to have a vat of genetically modified algae in my house that removes CO2 and turns into some kind of Soylent.
- CuriouslyC 4y agoThat coastal habitat could also be used to support stocks of fish that people will actually want to eat.
- throwuwu 4y ago> Some are quite nutritious, some give us tummy troubles, some at excellent sinks for CO2 You forgot some are potent neurotoxins
- calibas 4y agoThat's "blue-green algae", a type of bacteria, that produces neurotoxins. Way different than the kinds of algae they're talking about here.
- ben_w 4y ago> I'm very curious if we could mass manufacture something like algae and then pyrolize it to get fuel and solid carbon to sequester. For a while I was interested in algae biofuels. IIRC, the problem is other life tends to get in and eat the algae you want while blocking the pumps and filters you need to maximise growth. (But I've been out of that loop for a while now, so for all I know some random YouTuber has found a solution).