First a bit of background. I was researching types of houseplants to replace the Spider Plant from my office that I just killed and discovered that algae is much more efficient at converting CO2 to O2. Half an hour worth of netsurfing later, I decided to build a
photobioreactor. I combined this with several other projects on my "someday" list, hoping to increase my chances of completion; my
WRT54G needed a reason to live, I wanted to build something steampunk, and a friend at work gave me a couple of nice size solar panels.
This should be quite the "green" project...
I have started some building, but here's a quick look at some of my materials:
(click on the thumbnail to see larger images)
The case. Yes, it's an urn. No, there wasn't anyone in it when I got it from the thrift store...
Here's the inside of the case. The LCD is a 24x8 serial display from
PJRC.
The algae tank. It's 1/4" acrylic sandwiched across some polypropylene with an o-ring groove. I work for a company that does subsea robotics, so the o-ring seal just seemed the right way to go.
Here are some parts I put together to make what I'm calling the bubble pump (Wikipedia calls it an
airlift pump). The theory is that the rising air from the air stone will lift some of the water along with it. Initial prototyping doesn't look good, so I may need to rethink this. I machined the brass hex stock, added o-ring grooves (the o-ring kit from AS&S* is finally coming in handy). The glass is a Pyrex test tube (again surplus, from the local university) cut with a Dremel and a cutting disk. There will be two of these pumps, one on each side.
*If you haven't seen
American Science & Surplus, check it out. My guess is that most people here would dig the place.
The nifty spiral thingamabobs are candle holders from Ikea. I sealed the ends of the spiral tubes with epoxy putty, then drilled and tapped them for the fittings. If all works out, the water/algae mix will flow out the bottom of the rectangular tank, through the bubble pumps, up the spirals and back into the tank.
Here's a sketch of my idea for an air pump and a pic of one of the bellows I found for it. The machinery will be brass and powered by a fake steam piston, which is actually a hacked together linear actuator powered by a stepper motor from an old floppy drive read head. I'll post a pic when I find that darned thing. I know it's here in the lab somewhere....
