Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Crap, Can't get the link to show up here as clickable, go here:

http://search.cnn.com/search.jsp?query= ... intl=false

Click on the video on the right side that has a flask and algae in the thumbnail. Good luck!

The vertigro company site; this video is pretty fascinating:
http://www.valcent.net/s/Ecotech.asp?ReportID=182039

This link about growing transparent walls of plants moving around on conveyors is neat too:
http://www.valcent.net/s/HDVGS.asp?ReportID=264273

This is really exciting. Thanks for posting that.
Linda

aup chaps, the 1st link, it's not playing the video, but I think i know what it is, i seen something about this somewhere a few months ago, about culturing algea & converting it to biofuel, but i couldnt remember whether they were developing cellulose to biofuel or whether the algea actual had oils naturally present?

Hey schtopp, check out the second link, it provides a better description of the technology. The advance is to grow in vertical bags which are more efficient space-wise than algae ponds.

Hi Dave
Great links.
It might be my eyes but do those vertical panels look more white (maybe opaque) than clear as they say.
I think clear panels would only be effective for a short time as the foliage and roots would soon convert it into a light tight panel.

Motivation of vertical vegetation really appeals to the mad scientist in me

Some algaes are composed with 60-70% of oil.
You can get 1500 times the amount of oil from algae to terrestrial plants at the hectare.
They have a research center on the Atlantic coast where they are trying to find the best specie for this use. Should be the second generation of biofuels.
They are even thinking of producing them at the end of factory chimneys to extract CO2, the oil production can cover the light costs, the gaz filters and separator and give extra energy.

Algae processing for bio-diesel, bio-mass etc is a proven practiced technology in Europe, However here it seems like every time someone announces plans to start production the venture fails to get off the ground and the parties involved disappear. I don't want to be labeled a conspiracy theorist but every time a new energy idea is proposed in North America there is a concerted effort to stifle it before it catches on. According to the information available there is no reason a commercial AP could not be energy self sufficient if they were to grow and harvest their own algae and divert fish/plant waste with the algae into methane or bio-mass production. You could go down the refining path and create bio-diesel, but it would be less intensive to just produce methane and still have the organic fertilizer afterwards.