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Sup yall, I'm new to the tribe.
I have been interested in the ability to create my own fuel for my diesel truck, and diesel generator. I've looked at the possibilities of used veg oil, oil "seed", and now algae.
I am extremely interested in constructing some sort of small scale algae production for personal use. To me it seems out of all the options, algae can potentially be the most productive. So, the question is, has anyone out there tried to set up their own personal system for harvesting algae for oil. All these companies working on algae all seem to have giant bioreactors or raceways. Im looking for something that could be put to use at the home or small farm level. I believe for society to be truly self-sufficient, the individuals of that society must be self-sufficient. So yeah, thats the goal in my mind. If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, or comments, they will be highly appreciated, as I dont really have anyone to talk to.
I have been interested in the ability to create my own fuel for my diesel truck, and diesel generator. I've looked at the possibilities of used veg oil, oil "seed", and now algae.
I am extremely interested in constructing some sort of small scale algae production for personal use. To me it seems out of all the options, algae can potentially be the most productive. So, the question is, has anyone out there tried to set up their own personal system for harvesting algae for oil. All these companies working on algae all seem to have giant bioreactors or raceways. Im looking for something that could be put to use at the home or small farm level. I believe for society to be truly self-sufficient, the individuals of that society must be self-sufficient. So yeah, thats the goal in my mind. If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, or comments, they will be highly appreciated, as I dont really have anyone to talk to.
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Illinois
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Re: Home Algae Farm
Wed, April 30, 2008 - 12:32 PMThe most efficient way to harvest oil from algae is to feed it to a critter that will metabolize the lipid, then kill the critter and extract it's oil.
Grow a salt water algae that brine shrimp would like in one tank and grow brine shrimp in another.
Starve the brine shrimp right before adding the algae to their water, they will polish it.
Once they have eaten all the algae, remove the brine shrimp from the water and put them in a blender to emulsify them.
Then centrifuge the shrimp paste and it will separate out into layers of...
lipids (this is what you'd make your shrimp diesel out of)
chitin (this is the exoskeleton and makes great bio-plastics)
proteins, starches carbohydrates.... put these in an anaerobic digester to generate and capture methane (biogas) with which you can run a natural gas-powered generator and power your whole home (maybe even your neighborhood).
Check out this tribe:
tribes.tribe.net/algaefools
