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.