[Bioconversion] The Pond Scum Fireball

[Jeff Davis]

Dear Andrew and List,





On Saturday 24 December 2005 03:57 pm, andrew wrote:

> There are many different sorts of algae, are you saying they are all oil
> rich?

No. I just want to make fireballs out of the algae. It just has to burn. Some 
algae is up to 50% oil. But I just want to try what ever grows here. Think 
it's blue green. If you want biodiesel than you need the oil algae than you 
have to worry about the native algae taking over. Why not just grow what 
grows best in your area and make Fireballs out of it. If it's possible. It's 
just a theory.



> What are the growing conditions, I seem to remember them needing about
> 200W/m^2 of incident radiation, not available in UK at this time of year.

Warm water, lots of sun light and food. It would be a summer time growing 
season, like for most plants here. I would have to harvest enough for the 
rest of the year.



>
> > Algae, having binder qualities hence no binder would have to be added
>
> I like this, how much better to add such algae to a biomass pellet and not
> need the high pressures.

I would not have to buy starch.



>
> > the sky thinking, as of now. Furthermore it would be a plus if we could
> > remove the nutrients from the algae and return that to our algae pond for
> > further growth. I love circles!
>
> Then a cycle with digestion rather than combustion may be more sustainable?


I gave up on digestion, in my case. It would be fine for some people. I need 
to store fuel hence the fireball. With digestion, I would need lots of tanks 
and a compressor. Also there is more to digestion, when you look into it. I 
also had ZERO luck making any gas.


>
> > Possibly this would be a good way to store wind power. A windmill could
> > power full spectrum lights that are placed in the algae pond.
>
> I suspect the conversion from wind to electricity to light would be very
> lossy, if you have a big hill nearby pumping water up the hill and having
> electricity on demand by releasing water through a turbine would be more
> sensible.

In algae ponds that raise food they buy electric and have under-water lighting 
(well some do). I'm sure your right about it being lousy but If you had 
excess wind power it would be an option.


-- 

Jeff Davis