My Journey is beginning!

Well I Started college at the beginning of this semester. It sucks so far. I really only want to do my algae business project. Algae is really the only thing I want to do. I've gotten to the point where I would say I have 80% of a business plan. I've decided that with ten thousand dollars I could start to get started on developing a business of growing algae for biofuel. The plan now is to work till I have ten thousand dollars and then buy 5 acres of land and dig a pit, and grow algae. So my roommate was able to hook me up with a job, should only take me about 6 months or so to save up ten grand. As things are always though, it will take much longer than that. So yeah thats my most recent update I'll let you guys know when things get closer, maybe I'll add some pictures of the property I want to buy.

Why algae

why do i want to do algae?

is it the money

is it the possibility of fame?

people tell me it can't be done

people say everyone else has already done it

people tell me that i will never make any money

people tell me the idea of growing algae is ludicrous

they tell me i shouldn't even try,

People laugh directly to my face as i tell them

i tell them my conviction to grow algae

to be the man that changed the face of oil

to bring jobs back into america

to bring our wealth americas history

our heritage our beliefs

to bring them back

bring them all back to america

maybe that's why i grow algae

or rather why i want to grow algae

because they don't want me to

and i want to

maybe its because i'm stubborn.

maybe its for America

final note on algae bioreactor

I went outside to check on my algae bucket and found that it was full of water. I stuck a stick down to see if I still had my layer of algae on the bottom, and I didn't. So its still sitting out there, maybe this time next year it will have lost all its water again  but anyways that's the end of my algae project for this year, largely because Idaho just gets slightly too cold every night. maybe Ill work on my VAWT, vertical axis wind turbine, and try to get a battery bank to charge and a use for that battery bank, maybe powering my sisters dogs heat lamp? 

more on my bioreactor

I've been reading about separating algae from water and it seems like their are several different methods that can be used. you can just let it dry out in the sun without a lid, this however presents some problems, it needs to both be very hot, or mildly hot with a breeze, and bugs.

now bugs are really annoying hence the name, bug, they like to lay their eggs in still water that then create larvae which in turn will eat your algae. and then they become whatever including mosquitoes so putting open containers out in the open is good as long as its hot and you have a draft and a way of covering the containers without restricting air movement by too much. one thing i have found works is you get some netting like the kind you can buy at jo anns fabrics something kinda like this would work i think http://www.joann.com/nylon-net-72-many-colors/prd7200/ I would be wary of this it seems like the holes might be too big but you want your holes to be smaller than the oppening of a water bottle and the netting needs to have an inch or more of space between itself and the water so no eggs get laid through the netting.

another method is to use a process called auto-floculation,  auto-floculation is the raising of the PH of the water to 10.5 or more (for most common species). this causes the algae to clump together and sink to the bottom of the tank, this doesnt remove all the algae from the water or any of it for that matter, all it does is make it easier to gather the algae. so the algae is then in clumps on the bottom of the container you can either use a find combed net to get the algae out or you can slowly drain the water off of the top and collect the remaing algae afterwords. the nice thing about this method is then you dont have to worry about getting a new starter culture you just reuse the water give it some more nutrients and wait.

you may be asking right now, (or googling) how to raise the PH level in water, well one way to do it with the algae is to remove the carbon dioxide supply the algae will continue to consume carbon dixide raising the PH and making the algae flocculate. another way i have read about but dont know how well it will work is by adding baking soda to the water. baking soda is sodium bicarbonate which is supposedly a basic substance therefore raising the PH (correct me if im wrong), therefore flocculating the algae.

well thats all i have for you for today (and the last couple of days) check in soon and i might even have a working camera to take pictures on!

algae bio-reactor

So my algae bio reactor (sorry i didn't write this yesterday got caught up making a second story in my dads shop)

First thing why did i decide to build a algae bio reactor (tanks of water that grow algae):
well the short explanation is i thought it would be cool to make some bio diesel but what i tell my parents so they don't get too mad at my tanks of green water in the backyard is that its good for the environment and if i actually make enough diesel i can start selling it and get a little income for myself (although I'm pretty sure that you need to have a license to sell diesel to anyone but oh well.)

Second, what is an algae Bio-Reactor:
An algae Bio-Reactor is in short clear containers of some sort with algae growing in them. That means that even your dogs water holder that has that green tint you have been meaning to clean out is technically a Bio-Reactor. My Bio-Reactor is a collection of water bottles, power drink bottles, Henry Weinhard bottles, clear plastic feeding tube iv bags, and a couple 5 gallon buckets filled with my algae water solution.

Thirdly how to make an algae bio reactor and a few tips and tricks to make it better:
first of all you need to grow your culture and how to do this is go to some public lake or stream and get a rock out of the bottom the slimier and grosser and greener the better while you are there get your five or seven gallon bucket of of nice lake/stream water and put a couple small scoops (2-3 cups) of dirt from the bottom of the water into the bucket and put your rock in their too.

That's where your algae will grow after a few days it should be getting greener. one thing you can do to significantly improve the growth rate of your algae is to get an air line and drop it into the bottom of the tank and have some constant bubbling going on that can effectively double the rate at which your algae will grow. once it starts getting really green turn off your air line in the morning and by the end of the day your water should be more green than brown, this is because the dirt has settled but the algae doesn't settle.

Now that you have a decent culture spot you can take your empty bottles and fill them up with water from the tank, you'll want to fill them up to the point closest to the top with the most surface area, so in beer bottles and Henry Weinhard bottles that would be right before the neck, in water bottles that's before the last curve, on all of these bottle you'll want to take the paper and packaging and what not off of them, to allow more light through.

now that you have a million and four cans full of algae water let it grow ill post in a week or so so more stuff on what to do next maybe tomorrow ill post some more tips and tricks to help your algae grow better, just go research it up their is a ton of places with information one great site is instructables.com they have a lot of stuff on algae just search for it if you have any questions leave them in the comments have a great day!

hey so I'm back

     So I've dived into the realm of awesome green technology, let the record hold i am a strong conservative but this stuff is cool and renewable and largely you can do it yourself. if any of you guys have instructables.com accounts my username is zaronas and you can find me there, then again my username is zaronas on most things so that's probably me if you see that username.
     tommorrow (because this is my post for the day) ill talk about my algae bio reactor and some of my plans for that. first i have to find my camera because cameras are cool(doctor who quote, that reminds me i should post about how awesome doctor who is). hey if i for some strange reason have some rich fan who has to much money and doesnt know what to do with it feel free to message me so i can give you details for my paypal account so you can give me donations so i can spend more time on here and can build more project and give you guys more awesome stuff, then again if you click on my ads then i can spend more time on here because then i will be earning more money, and if this becomes some sort of actual base of income then i could do some awesome stuff like get a better camera or my own, and my own laptop, and a better bio reactor, and some land to make my kiln on so i can get myself back into blacksmithing, ill have to tell you guys that story later but for now this is me saying click on the ads or give me money! and goodnight from mountain standard time!