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>When used in bioreactors* When used in a sealed climate-controlled chamber that produces the ideal conditions on land for an aquatic plant specie. IIRC it's
by minsc_and_boo 4y ago
>When used in bioreactors*
When used in a sealed climate-controlled chamber that produces the ideal conditions on land for an aquatic plant specie.
IIRC it's ridiculously expensive to scale algae bioreactors, while trees grow and maintain themselves. I wish algae was easier to scale because it does have great potential.
- chasil 4y agoWhy don't we just scale them in the oceans?
- psadri 4y agoThat might disturb the ocean ecosystem.
- chasil 4y agoAnd these trees don't?
- FourHand451 4y agoI think the larger point is that there isn't a simple, obvious, "Why don't we just do XYZ?" solution to the problems being discussed here.
- psadri 4y agoI agree anything we do at scale will affect the ecosystem. However, restoring an ecosystem to a previous state seems less risky than changing oceans to a new state.
- sieabahlpark 4y ago[dead]
- schainks 4y agoMaintaining things sitting in the ocean is still expensive. You can’t send robots out, you must send humans. Oil rigs are worthwhile just because they can be turned on/off relatively easily depending on market conditions and when they are on, they mint so much money that expensive humans are a rounding error.
- johnsillings 4y agoWhy can't you send robots out?
- SuoDuanDao 4y agoThere are plans to add (I believe) iron oxide to the oceans to increase algae growth. Don't recall the organization's name right now.
- minsc_and_boo 4y agoI hope not. You can permanently alter (i.e. for decades) the climate in a region by creating an algae bloom.
- alexose 4y agoOut of curiosity, what are the challenges in scaling algae bioreactors?
- hansvm 4y agoThey're easy to scale in some sense (just make a bunch of small ones), but small reactors have a high surface area to volume ratio -- i.e., a high expense to algae ratio. Making bigger vats is problematic because the work being done is proportional to surface area (light penetration) and because the chance of infection goes up exponentially.
- schainks 4y agoAlgae also produce waste that SMELLS. Now you have costs to deal with that, which also reduces _where_ you can put them, since most people don’t necessarily enjoy living near the smell of a wetland. Then there are the ocean-based startups trying to just assist with what nature does out in nature. Also tough to scale when dealing with dropping structures in the ocean and making sure they work with as little maintenance as possible. So both indoor “Ideal condition” and outdoor “Ideal condition” growing are actually really tough to scale cost effectively. Doing something _else_ with them while sequestering carbon could be interesting though. I know one team that is using algae to clean up wastewater wile producing electricity. I don’t think they’ll get to cost effective scale, but I think the idea tackles two great problems at once in a creative way, and that’s still progress!
- L_226 4y agoMy startup is working on novel microalgae photobioreactors - we are raising an angel/pre-seed round right now. Our system is far more energy and space efficient compared to PBRs and raceways - we do this via a proprietary mechanism that greatly increases surface area to volume ratio of liquid water in our reactors. Feel free to drop us a line at info[at]skyfarmclimate.tech
- rengler33 4y agoI used to be on a research project that attempted to do this with a fungus/algae mix because when grown together the fungus suspended the algae throughout the column of water. That was a fun project that had it's funding pulled, and then I had to get into software engineering to make a living. What's the basic way of accomplishing your improvement?
- L_226 4y agoI can share further details by email, but the gist is we enable much faster gas exchange for microalgae cells compared to existing systems, inside a unique reactor design that gives us some other benefits for common cultivation processes.
- hanniabu 4y agoWhat do you dto with the algae after it has grown?
- L_226 4y agoSell it
- CatWChainsaw 4y agoAre you by chance growing spirulina algae? It's a popular supplement.
- L_226 4y ago