Microalgae biodiesel question

[Jeremy Carreiro]

Hello everyone,

First time poster here. I'm in the process of putting together a bioreactor, I need some ideas as to what I can, or should use as medium, and I was wondering if someone could steer me in the right direction. Can I use nutrient rich water? Where does one acquire it? 

[Avery louie]

depending on the algae, filter sterilized fertilizer water might work.  Or fertilizer water+instant ocean for salts (for saltwater algae)

--A

On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:25 PM, Jeremy Carreiro <jcarre...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello everyone,

First time poster here. I'm in the process of putting together a bioreactor, I need some ideas as to what I can, or should use as medium, and I was wondering if someone could steer me in the right direction. Can I use nutrient rich water? Where does one acquire it? 

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[Sebastian Cocioba]

F/2 gallards medium works for me with chlorella vulgaris.

Sent from my Windows Phone

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From: Avery louie
Sent: 8/7/2013 9:38 PM
To: diy...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [DIYbio] Microalgae biodiesel question

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/CAL4KOmi8e1JsJOCbCo1Z6%2BxvTPW1191Qd0kD5d%3Dz_hr-0cs__w%40mail.gmail.com.

[Graeme Dean]

I dont know if this will be of any help but it might be of interest. Its a paper on algae biomass production. 
Please find attached a paper

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/124644901150414124%40unknownmsgid.

[Jeremy Carreiro]

Thank you!

[Jeremy Carreiro]

Hey everyone,

Thank you for the responses, and for providing a good starting point for me! =)

[Dakota Hamill]

I can attest that  F/2 medium worked well for our Nanochloropsis.  We made an 8x2L soda bottle reactor and used an "instant salt water mix" from petco.  I have pictures and videos of it in action somewhere I'll find it.  

[Jeremy Carreiro]

If possible, I would definitely like to see it!

[Jeremy Carreiro]

Thank you for the tip. I will definitely be ordering some

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 9:09:18 AM UTC-4, Sebastian wrote:

[Jeremy Carreiro]

I have another question,
I'm a lab tech at a local community college, so I have access to some materials/equipment if necessary.

We would like to delve into making biodiesel with our students. Right now I'm putting this together on a budget, so when the opportunity arises (a.k.a when we receive grant money), we will have something up and running to show to the higher powers. =)

Currently I will be using an old 1L Applikon bioreactor to house the algae. To sparger the medium, I will be running an aquarium pump as an air source into the vessel.

With that said, I will move on to my question. Does anyone here know if the aquarium tubing they sell at Petco is made of Polypropylene? Has anyone here ever tried Autoclaving it?

On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 9:25:17 PM UTC-4, Jeremy Carreiro wrote:

[Dakota Hamill]

Here is our ghetto reactor from my old youtube channel (yes you can laugh at the odd videos on it)

Initial quick overview by my friend Dan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjeOAxFjPWs&list=TLIyzPqnfrQdY

Me saying we will harvest them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly-zuJCc_2g&list=TLC23lHaU8YXA

A terrible short video of flocculation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXMgNGZq-Q&list=TLwYrkZSAeGAI

Rotovapping algae organic solvent extraction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeQOH9nSSGo&feature=c4-overview&list=UUsGX_HsSV3PEA7HVnA6cyiA

Resuspension of the oil in heptane 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjl6LsLydP0&list=UUsGX_HsSV3PEA7HVnA6cyiA

I have way more footage of the in depth process of soxhlet extraction and other things, as well as cool pictures, but I don't even know where to upload it and I'm not very motivated to spend hours editing it all together in a nice pretty video.

It's pretty hard to go wrong growing algae if you sterilize your growth containers, give it good growth media, and good sunlight.  It's amazing that 16L of algae that looked like a TON of algae ended up netting us like 1g of dried sample.  There is a lot less there than you think when it's all said and done, no wonder people grow it in massive ponds.

Basically we grew the algae, then used a small mesh sock filter to filter all the algae out.  We scraped it, dried it, macerated it with sand and liquid nitrogen, then did Soxhlet extraction with heptane on it.  We took an IR of the sample, and it indeed appeared to be comprised mainly of oils/atty acids.

We didn't get enough to try any conversion to bio-diesel so we didn't.  I understand why biodiesel isn't pouring in by the gallons from algae, because you need a shitload of it to produce a gallon of usable oil.  You'd probably have a better business model for making biodiesel if you went to McDonalds and got their extra frier grease.  

This was done in 2011/2012 when I was an undergrad as a side project.

[Jeff Backstrom]

On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 11:36 AM, Jeremy Carreiro <jcarre...@gmail.com> wrote:

With that said, I will move on to my question. Does anyone here know if the aquarium tubing they sell at Petco is made of Polypropylene? Has anyone here ever tried Autoclaving it?

Not PP; probably vinyl. It won't survive autoclaving.

Fill with 8% bleach; get all the air bubbles out. 3% hydrogen peroxide would probably work as well. The former would do best with a sterile water rinse. The second may kill your algae if too much of it gets back in to your starter culture.

[Jeremy Carreiro]

Very cool! Thank you for sharing this!

[Jeremy Carreiro]

I believe I already know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask anyways just out of curiosity.

I would like to get an algae culture going prior to the start of our upcoming semester. However, we will most likely add this to our curriculum in the spring. It would be nice to get a head start on this and work out any kinks.

So my question is if anyone knows of a freezing protocol that I can use in order to preserve some algae for when we're ready? Or do you recommend us ordering algae as needed?

On Wednesday, August 7, 2013 9:25:17 PM UTC-4, Jeremy Carreiro wrote:

[Cathal Garvey (Phone)]

As bacteria, they probably respond well to similar protocols to lab strains: glycerol freezing or trehalose drying?

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[Erico Perrella]

Hi! 

I am also trying to develop a cheap photobioreactor for biofuel production and this site http://algaegeek.com/ helped me a lot, they have some very nice designs!

Also, this is a nice book in the overall http://www.amazon.ca/Algal-Biofuels-Guide-Cyanobacteria-ebook/dp/B00D8O1KSG.

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[Jeremy Carreiro]

Hey Erico,

Sorry for the delayed response. Thank you for sharing this!

 I'll be checking it out now, and adding this to my algae growing toolbox.

 I order some Chlorella Vulgaris last week, so I should be receiving it any time now.  :)