Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Tele man
Weeks? Nope, during our LONG HOT summer days, probably only hours for regrowth to begin, with a full pond scum in days!
That stuff is ALIVE ! ! !
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Yes, pun intended. And Old Tele is right, the stuff can grow quite rapidly given the right conditions. It may seem futile to be growing the stuff in ones backyard if only a few liters of oil per day are the result, but many parameter changes can accelerate that.
The choice of algae is a good starting point. Some naturally occurring algae approach 50% body weight in oil and live in salty environments and reproduce on a rapid time scale. Lab engineered varieties exceed these specifications.
Another is CO2 content. Basing these farms near polluting sources such as power plants and industries that produce CO2 provide a form of emissions cleanup and recycle the CO2 with some of it becoming removed from the carbon loop.
Municipality waste effluence can provide the rich nutrients as well as help in the cleanup of the effluence water stream.
Light concentrators as well as continuous harvesting to keep the shadow effect to a minimum will be needed.
Add that all up and your swimming pool sized algae pond can produce 10's of liters of oil per day with 10's of kilograms of high protein solids.
Of course, this is an ideal. Reality shows a long hard road to work through.