Algae Farm (Bio Reactor)

It seems my curious mind got the better of me once again.  Out of boredom a couple of weeks ago, I decided to put together a simple algae "bio reactor."  The term "bio reactor" has never really sat well with me, since it makes the whole thing sound much more impressive than it really is.  Put simply, it's nothing more than pop bottles filled with water with a small air pump to aerate and encourage algae growth.  Here's my version, with a materials list, instructions, and observations:

Finished product, after a few days of growth

Materials:

- 1 liter pop bottle (x2)
- small aquarium air pump.
- small aquarium air stone (x2)
- 1 meter of air hose (silicon or PVC)
- T fitting for air hose
- small pieces of foam
- 2 liters chlorine free water
- liquid plant food (any brand)
- algae water (a few mL, from a pond or store bought)

Process:

1. Gather all necessary supplies. The air pump, air stones, hose and T fitting can all be inexpensively purchased at your local pet store.
2. Peel the plastic off the bottles and clean them up as much as possible
3. Cut two lengths of hose approximately 30 to 35 cm in length (long enough to reach the bottom of the bottles) and attach them, with an air stone on the end of each, to the top ends of the T fitting. Attach the remainder of the tubing to the bottom of the T and to the air pump.
4. Fill the bottles most of the way full with clean chlorine free water. If you are going to use tap water, make sure your local area doesn't use chloramine to make it potable.  If not, you can leave tap water sitting in an open container for a day so the chlorine can evaporate away before using it.
5. Add the algae water and a few drops of plant food to each bottle
6. Insert the air stone ends of the hose into the bottles, stuff the ends up with the foam, and turn on the air pump.
7. Make sure the bottles are in an area where they will get a lot of sunlight. Wait a few days, and the water will begin to turn more and more green as algae growth proliferates. In fact, it might go crazy, like mine did:

Crazy growth, after about 2 weeks

Observations:

I had to wait about 6 days before it began to show signs of algae growth.  It began to get a darker and darker shade of green as each day went on.  Interestingly, if I turn off the pump and let it sit over night, the algae seems to settle into 3 distinct layers.  I'm not sure what the significance of this is, but perhaps it has something to do with there being different types of algae growing at the same time, with different densities.  This picture gives you a decent idea of what I mean, although it doesn't show up all that well:

Algae layers after sitting overnight

I'm still not entirely sure what to do with this now, and I probably should have considered that beforehand. Its only real use to me is to look neat, and perhaps scrub away a bit of CO2 in my basement. I could simply use it as a fertilizer (although I should look into this first before I try).  Or maybe I could also separate the algae with a centrifuge and then squeeze the oil out of it to use as a bio fuel, but I have a feeling I would need a lot of it.  Let me know if you have any ideas.

Relevant Links:

- NASA's Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) project: NASA
- Instructable similar to my project: Instructables
- Wikipedia article on Algaculture: Wikipedia
- 7 tips for growing algae: Wikihow

Thanks again for reading!

Coffee Coffee Coffee!

I first started really drinking coffee when I was living in Melbourne, Australia.  I was 21 at the time, and had never been exposed to a place with so much coffee culture before.  During my nearly year long stay in the city, I was living in a hostel and cleaning the common areas to pay for my room.  Without fail, each day I would find enough money in the chairs and couches to pay for a latté and a muffin at my all-time favourite coffee house, Cafe No. 5.

Ever since then, I have truly enjoyed the beverage.  In my opinion, there is no better way to relax than with a good, high quality cup of coffee.  However, I have always been faced with a proper dilemma: I don’t have money to buy coffee every day, but I want to drink a good cup every day. So, lately I have been trying numerous different ways of making good coffee at home.

I own a terrible coffee maker which I no longer use for a few reasons.  Primarily, it doesn’t get the water hot enough to properly brew the coffee and accordingly, the coffee isn’t even hot enough to enjoy when it’s ready.  Additionally, it uses a glass carafe which sits on top of a heater.  Rather than keep the coffee “warm” it more just burns it, which is not exactly ideal.  Needless to say, I was looking for a better solution.  

The simplest solution I could conjure up was the standard pour-over method.  I’ve been using this method for quite some time now and I have achieved some great results.  

My super cheap solution

Basically, I put a bottomless cup lined with a paper coffee filter on top of my coffee mug and pour hot water, just off boil over top.  The brew drips down into the mug and the whole process takes about 7 or 8 minutes from the time I begin boiling the water.  Here is a wonderful video explaining the proper method and the intricate chemical processes that occur during:

 

Although the pour-over method has been effective for me, I’m not completely satisfied with it.  My main complaint is that I do not own either a high quality filter such as the Kone, or a proper pour-over kettle.  As much as The Kone filter is something I would like to own, it costs about the same as a week or two of groceries (depending on how thrifty I’m feeling.)  Similarly, a proper pour-over kettle - which would hopefully stop me from spilling everywhere - is well out of my price range.

To get myself out of this predicament, I am going to design and build a siphon coffee maker, as described on Wikipedia. These typically cost hundreds of dollars to buy new, but I am confident I can build one for less than ten.  Here is a video demonstrating your standard siphon brewing in action:  

The key points with siphon brewing are as follows:  The heated vessel needs to be air-tight, with only a path for the water to travel to the coffee grounds.  Once the water begins to boil, it is forced through the tube into the other vessel.  Once the coffee has brewed for a minute or so, the device is removed from the heat and the coffee will flow through a filter on the end of the tube, back into the original vessel, and you have your finished coffee.  My solution is going to be a variation of this using an erlenmeyer flask with some copper, or perhaps glass, tubing.  I threw together a quick model to give a better idea of what I mean:

Preliminary Siphon Brewer Concept

I’m in the process of finding a suitable flask so that I’ll be able to put this together.  I look forward to testing it and letting you know how it works out.  Updates to follow!

A few of my assorted projects

Here's a quick post about a few different projects I have going on right now.  I will go into more depth for most of these at a later date.

- I recently built a very simple algae culture "farm."  A lot of people like to call these "bio-reactors" but I feel that makes it sound way more cool than it really is.  It's essentially some bottles that have algae growing in them.  I have yet to decide on a use for this algae...  oh well.

- I've been working on building a model sized jet engine for quite some time now.  It will be a fully operational engine about 24 cm in length.  This project is a little more expensive than most of my others, so it's pretty slow going.

- I had to build a fully automated lifting bridge for a project at school.  I will have a detailed post on this later, but here is a quick teaser image:

I went with a tilt style bridge for this project

- Last year, I had to design and build a scale model of a food cart for a Thai food restaurant for another school project.  I will have another detailed post for this at a later date.

- I've been on a bit of a coffee kick lately.  I've been trying all different kinds of ways of brewing coffee.  I'm in the middle of putting together a siphon coffee brewer, similar to the one demonstrated in this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHz-NIPTvf0.  I have also been working with a classmate to develop and build an espresso machine.  This will be an ongoing project, which we will work on throughout the year.

- To get experience using PID controllers for the espresso machine, the same classmate and I are planning to build a sous-vide cooker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide

There are many more projects which I have worked on, and currently have going that I will most likely talk about another time.  Keep coming back to see any updates!

Lunar Module Model

My first post on this blog is going to be about a Grumman Lunar Module model I built last summer. The LM has always been one of my favourite real spacecraft.  The design process involved in its creation is absolutely fascinating to me.  I purchased a very cheap $10 Revell 1:100 scale kit [ http://www.revell.com/germany/space-sci-fi/80-4832.html ] from my local hobby store, and spent a lot of time reworking it to make it look as good as possible with the limited resources I had available.  Sadly I did not take many photographs of the process, but here are a few that I took with the terrible camera on my phone:

Base coats on both ascent and descent stages

A little bit of filling/modification on the ascent stage

This first images skip over a lot of the prep-work I did on the general shape and details of the model.  I spent a fair few hours sanding edges, adding details, smoothing imperfections and so on before I even put the first coat of primer on.  Then I repeated that process two or three times before I was ready to begin final details.

Nearly finished painting the main body

Here is the main portions of the ascent and descent stages all painted.  This was taken before decals and clear coat had been applied.  Extra details such as antennas and base were still forthcoming at this point.

The finished model before final clear-coat.  Notice the custom made base

The final model.  All details had been added by this point.  The only detail missing was a couple coats of clear. I custom made the base using modelling clay (Super-Sculpey I believe) and coated it with a mixture of charcoal powder and tile grout to get the texture right.  I then added the "moon rock" which is actually a small meteorite. 

Overall, I am very pleased with how this model turned out.  Considering it cost me a mere $10 for the kit, I really have no complaints.  Some day I would like to do another in a larger scale, offering even more detail.