Is DIY Algae Farming the Future?

hex0D points to this "interview with Aaron Baum explaining why people growing algae at home for food can help the environment and their health, and what he's doing to facilitate this. 'We'd like to create an international network of people growing all kinds of algae in their homes in a small community scale, sharing information, doing it all in an open source way. We'd be like the Linux of algae – do-it-yourself with low-cost materials and shared information.' And one of the low-cost materials is your household urine."

Comments

Looks like people are starting to see the benefits

[Khyber]

Although I wouldn't consume algae as a food source, I could certainly use it as a fuel source.

I even make LED panels for growing specific species of algae, for this very purpose.

Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef

[Plazmid]

You might want to reconsider growing algae for food, one research group at my university is investigating growing algae to produce sugar, so we don't have to cut down forests to grow sugarcane. Also, I really hope those LED panels are solar powered. As solar powered LED panels emitting light at frequencies the algae uses can be far more efficient than growing algae in direct sunlight(even cheap solar panels are more efficient at solar conversion than algae).

Re:self defeating business plan

[MattskEE]

It's put in the summary for shock value I think, but really what they need is mainly nitrogen (prevalent in fertilizer and also urine) and carbon dioxide. In one of their experiments they fed the algae exhaust from a generator. They could also be fed agricultural runoff rich in fertilizers, which is a problem when it reaches streams and oceans because it is so nutritious for algae that it produces algal blooms.

I'm sure you could feed your algae off of a bag of fertilizer from home depot, it's just like gardening but in water.

Re:Make it taste good first

[LurkerXXX]

I think growing a maple tree or two in the back yard and tapping them would produce about the same amount of calories he's taking in, with a lot less maintenance, and much better tasting product.

Welcome to Trantor

[Digicrat]

Asimov predicted this decades ago. Just another case of science catching up to fiction, or perhaps this just validates the theories of psychohistory that we aren't supposed to know about..

Of course, there's a long way to go before we generate enough recipes and concoctions of artificial ingredients to make it palatable, so that it's economically and socially mandated to create massive bio-farms.

For more information, refer to your copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Re:Looks like people are starting to see the benef

[Khyber]

You would think that, but I've been working on systems to produce far more while consuming far less.

http://imgur.com/TOgCX.jpg

As another example, an acre of barley grass takes about 100,000 gallons of water to produce on regular land, and about two weeks for usable animal fodder harvest. Newer systems I work on cut that down to about 1500 gallons, it happens in 7 days, and we don't even need ANY source of light. We grow it in completely dark sheds.

http://imgur.com/TYJUR.jpg

And we have these already in production for growing biofuel-producing algae, so your assumption would be somewhat wrong. The Middle East is one of my bigger clients.