Chlorophyll Collective is a presently experimenting with the use of algae to promote more sustainable living.
In prep for Burning Man, Chlorophyll Collective built a mobile bioreactor unit using algae at Burning Man which they taught and showcased as a open source approach at the event.
They have also been featured at the Green City Gallery in Berkeley.
Megan Bracken (aka Meggio Omega) reports on her Tribe.net blog about how the well reported “premature burn” of the Man led to the shutdown of the whole Green Man section of the event affected their exhibit. Apparently no one in the collective was able to go to check on the system for one week as the BM staff raced to rebuild “the man.” From Meggio’s comments this decision to close the Green Man Pavilion seemed quite controversial.
Their system which they call “the Single Cell Solution” is designed to grow in a vertical closed-system using bioreactor tubes. In the process of growing the algae they
have developed a process for bubbling the exhaust through it. In this process the algae absorbs the CO2 in the exhaust while it photosynthesizes enabling it to grow. The system includes the use of energy-efficient lighting to synthesize sunlight and stimulate photosynthesis at night. This is so the process continues day and night, whenever the generators are running.
The algae which are the most efficient photosynthetic organism on earth have high oil content. Because of this, many believe they can be converted into an efficient and renewable energy source for humanity. The idea is that the oil can be extracted from the algae and made into biodiesel or simply fed into the gen-set on a diesel configured to run on Straight Vegi Oil (SVO).
Currently this technology is relatively far from being commercially feasible at this time with many development stage companies competing for Venture Capital to develop this promising resource and experimental concept into a commercially viable source of renewable energy.
