new2u
01/17/2012, 11:34 AM
Hey there guys,
I used to be a lot more active on these forums, but frankly school and time has gotten in the way. I still have a great 120 gallon at home, everything is doing incredibly well under my mother’s husbandry while I’m up at school. I’m currently studying mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt university, and working on my senior design project. Its been thrown around before, but we’re looking at creating biodiesel from algae.
Well, the project itself is a chemical engineering affair, but I decided to hop in as an ME due to my knowledge of the community. I figure since I used to use this outlet so extensively, y’all might have some ideas for me. Since I’m the lone Mechanical I’ve taken the system design under my wing. Here are a couple of things I’m thinking about
Algal Species
Seems simple, but online I can’t really find any information on selection.
Tank Shape-
Thinking long rectangular prism, just deep enough for lighting penetration to be optimal. Maybe we could stack the trays?
Tank Size-
Again, I’m thinking stacking could be very beneficial but that would be awfully heavy. Possibly a larger tank that could be sun lit?
Tank Lighting-
I’m thinking LEDs are going to be the way to go, but I’m planning on doing a little cost analysis on VHOs, Halides, T-5s and LEDs factoring in replacement cost. However, the lack of heat addition is a pretty great thing too. Could natural lighting be an option in a large outdoor grow tank?
Tank Flow-
Should I look at non directional flow such as wave boxes? It could be cheap to implement if your custom making the grow tanks anyways.
Additives
We all know that algae does well under the influence of nitrate, phosphate to an extent and I assume that most microalgae are influenced by pH and salinity. Should I look at dosing nitrate (what a crazy thought)
As a conclusion, I know this is a monumental project, we’re just trying to do somewhat of an audit and efficiency conclusions. We do plan on paper napkining a system design down the road, but I’d really like to just think of angles to consider. Thanks for reading and adding, I’m really all about advice.
-Willis
I used to be a lot more active on these forums, but frankly school and time has gotten in the way. I still have a great 120 gallon at home, everything is doing incredibly well under my mother’s husbandry while I’m up at school. I’m currently studying mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt university, and working on my senior design project. Its been thrown around before, but we’re looking at creating biodiesel from algae.
Well, the project itself is a chemical engineering affair, but I decided to hop in as an ME due to my knowledge of the community. I figure since I used to use this outlet so extensively, y’all might have some ideas for me. Since I’m the lone Mechanical I’ve taken the system design under my wing. Here are a couple of things I’m thinking about
Algal Species
Seems simple, but online I can’t really find any information on selection.
Tank Shape-
Thinking long rectangular prism, just deep enough for lighting penetration to be optimal. Maybe we could stack the trays?
Tank Size-
Again, I’m thinking stacking could be very beneficial but that would be awfully heavy. Possibly a larger tank that could be sun lit?
Tank Lighting-
I’m thinking LEDs are going to be the way to go, but I’m planning on doing a little cost analysis on VHOs, Halides, T-5s and LEDs factoring in replacement cost. However, the lack of heat addition is a pretty great thing too. Could natural lighting be an option in a large outdoor grow tank?
Tank Flow-
Should I look at non directional flow such as wave boxes? It could be cheap to implement if your custom making the grow tanks anyways.
Additives
We all know that algae does well under the influence of nitrate, phosphate to an extent and I assume that most microalgae are influenced by pH and salinity. Should I look at dosing nitrate (what a crazy thought)
As a conclusion, I know this is a monumental project, we’re just trying to do somewhat of an audit and efficiency conclusions. We do plan on paper napkining a system design down the road, but I’d really like to just think of angles to consider. Thanks for reading and adding, I’m really all about advice.
-Willis