Hello everyone,

I'm posting information that you might find interesting: Clorohyll Collective designs algae photobioreactor for capturing carbon from combustion or fermentation. Although their idea is carbon capture and sequestration only, you might find their design approach interesting and valuable in your own Biodiesel-from-Algae projects.

Their main site is at: http://www.sonivore.net/ (then click on the center to enter)

Their forum site is here: http://tribes.tribe.net/chlorophyllcollective, with design drawings, all OPEN SOURCE: http://tribes.tribe.net/chlorophyllcollective/photos?page=1, or as they say: "All technology developed by the Collective will be made freely available to the public on our wiki pages for distribution, comment, and modification, unencumbered by patents or trademarks, thereby creating an informational clearing house for the algae farmers of the world". In upcoming events they are preparing a mini-setup for the Utah and Colorado Burns: ELEMENT 11 (June 1-3), APOGAEA (June 7-10) and DREAMTIME (July 19-22); with few of them teaching workshops regarding all of the above mentioned! The plastic used in their photobioreactor cost only $1.50 per bag (probably polyethelene). More information here: http://people.tribe.net/strawberrybunny/blog.

They have a very ambitious plan (project) for the Burning Man 2007 festival, see here: http://www.sonivore.net/uploads/Chlorophyll_Collective_Proposal_MSM2.pdf (8.88MB)

Please review this material an post your thoughts about the Clorohyll Collective project. Especially, do you find the low-cost PBR design interesting? Do you think you could use their design to produce a PBR for culturing algal oil for biodiesel production? Anyone interested in attending their workshops?

Best Regards,

Chris

They do mention the possibility of making biodiesel in one of their postings (see below). It would be interesting to hear from someone that is planning to attend one of their workshops. A PBR costing as low as $1.50 (long polyethelene bag) and workshops how to harvest algae for biodiesel production - all open source: Can't get any better than that!

"At the upcoming events: ELEMENT 11, APOGAEA AND DREAMTIME; a few of us will be teaching a workshops regarding all of the above mentioned! We also hope to demonstrate how to harvest the algae and measure it for lipid content (this is for potential use as a biodiesel. not all algae species have a high lipid content). With Fletch, Aaron, Brent, Sam, Mike, Joe, Kelley, Sara, Chris and myself, putting our heads together (so many times we've lost count), we made this up! And, great news: this technology is open source! "

Hi Folks!
 

Meggio from the Chlorophyll Collective here. I'd like to say thanks to Chris for helping promote our projects this year! Rock on!

Anyway, I just dropped in to give you some new information for the CHLOROPHYLL COLLECTIVE.

Our new website is up! Here is the url:  http:www.chlorophyllcollective.org

And for more information about our latest project at Burning Man and my involvement in the algae scene, check out my blog on tribe.net (here is the new link):

http://people.tribe.net/algaegirl/blog

I'd like to give props to our planet earth for hosting the beginnings of it's first living organism, algae. Algae was the only organism on the planet for 2/3rds of the earth's existence!

And, since the dawn of time, Iit has made our planet inhabitable by generating 80% of the oxygen we breathe!!

3 cheers for algae! 

Gotta go get my hands green....

I'm really looking forward to hearing from you. 

Meggio 

meggio@algaegirl.com

Meggio:

I'd like to give props to our planet earth for hosting the beginnings of it's first living organism, algae. Algae was the only organism on the planet for 2/3rds of the earth's existence!

Obviously this is not a true statement. Bacteria were first on the scene. Meggio is getting bacteria and algae mixed up or grouping them together which would be a very large biological mistake. http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_bacteria.html

'The fossil record of life begins with bacteria, at least 3.5 to 3.6 billion years ago. About half the history of life later, the more elaborate eukaryotic cell makes a first appearance in the fossil record—about 1.8 to 1.9 billion years ago by best current evidence.

The first multicellular creatures—marine algae—enter the stage soon afterward, but these organisms bear no genealogical relationship to our primary interest: the history of animal life. The first multicellular animals do not enter the fossil record until about 580 million years ago—after about five-sixths of life's history had already passed. Bacteria have been the stayers and keepers of life's history.'

Im afraid that such a statement calls into question the whole of the 'Chlorophyll Collective' because it demonstrates a lack of biological understanding. I hope it was just some sort of a typo.

Meggio:

And, since the dawn of time, Iit has made our planet inhabitable by generating 80% of the oxygen we breathe!!

Not to be a big meanie...but I dispute this statement also and again, it shows a lack of fundimental understanding of biological anthropology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen#_note-9

http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/geochem/09txt.html

Most of the history of the planet, or as some would say 'since the dawn of time', there is no O2 in the ATM. For 100's of millions of years, bacteria were infact producing O2 without algae and the earth was uptaking most that load, creating an equillibrium well before algae arrived onto the scene.

No doubt that algae are responsible for a big % of the overall ATM O2 but certainly not 80%.  

chris_12066:

unencumbered by patents or trademarks

Im curious how you know this statement to be true? Patent and trademark protection is an exclusionary vehicle. Maybe we can get a legal expert to chime in here but let me give you my understanding.

Lets say the screwdriver was patented. If I would independently develop a 'screwdriver' type of tool, independently of the screwdriver patent holder...the patent holder can order a 'cease and assist' that may or maynot be upheld in patent court. The court then has to go thru the details of the patent (the claims) and determine if my screwdriver violates those claims and thus the patent.

What Im saying is that you (the chlorophyll collective) could have violated 100's of patents and dont know it. And thus, could be liable for any damages caused.