New algae cultures

10/15/09 In Algae Culture #1, I added the Dunaliella culture I purchased from Ward’s. In Algae Culture #2, I added the Oedogonim cardiacum culture. In Algae Culture #3, I added the Oedogonim foveolatum culture. In Algae Culture #4, I added the Spirogyra culture. The reason I picked these strains is I cross referenced the algae strains well documented on Yahoo groups as being “Oil Producing” with inexpensive samples I could purchase at Ward’s.

The algae are growing!

Now it's time to order some algae samples that are known to produce oil and to begin working on a photo bio-reactor.

Air Source

To supply air to my algae samples, I am using the aquarium pump from my Biodiesel reactor. On the pressure side of the pump I use a 10 micron fuel filter to filter out wild algae that has the potential to contaminate my lab samples.

After the filter the aquarium tubing is plumbed to a tee fitting coming from the CO2 reactor. Next, two manifolds that distribute the air and CO2 mixture to the 7 containers. Each line has an aquarium needle valve to control the amount of air going to each container.

Sight Gauge

I quickly found out I had no way to determine if the CO2 reactor was still producing gas so I made a sight gauge out of a salsa jar.

Drip irrigation fittings are the same size as aquarium tubing so I drilled two holes in the lid of the salsa jar and screwed two drip irrigation fittings into a plastic tube. One tube is longer than the other.

Install a check valve from an aquarium store between the CO2 reactor and the air pump or the air pressure will push the water in the sight glass back into the CO reactor.

Fill the jar 1/2 with water and screw the lid back on. Once the CO2 reactor begins producing gas, bubbles will appear at the bottom of the tube under the water. This is the CO2 gas. It will accumulate in the glass and then exit through the second shorter tube. Connect the output with aquarium tubing to a tee fittings between your aquarium pump and your algae samples. As the aquarium pump pushes O2 to each of the containers it will pick up the CO2 gas and distribute it a well.

Yeast for CO2 Reactor

To activate the CO2 reactor, add yeast to a cup of warm sugar water, let it sit for about 15 minutes and then add it to your reactor.

CO2 Reactor

Algae feed on CO2 so we made a CO2 Reactor from a set of plans I found via a Google search. As I said in an earlier post, my kids didn't care much for some of the fruit juice blends I brought home from Costco but the yeast in my CO2 are not complaining. The CO2 reactor is made from a used plastic apple juice bottle from Trader Joes. Fill the bottle 3/4 with sugar water or bad fruit juice. I drilled a small hole in the lid big enough for standard aquarium tubing and I used some silicon to seal it.

The componets

The plastic bottles are from Costco. My kids don't drink soda pop so I went in search of some fruit juices in large containers. I found several flavors of fruit juice at Costco but the kids complained they were so sweet I ended up using the juice for my CO2 Reactor (More on that later). What I can tell you is the one juice they do like is Newman's Own Grape Juice. We took some to a kids birthday party and that produced several empty containers.