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

blacksmithing take two

With the cold weather ensuing one thing is eminent in my family, a fire. now your normal wood fire has very little practical smelting or blacksmithing applications, too much soot, not hot enough etc. However there is one thing they are good for, making charcoal. We all need some sort of fuel to heat our kilns, and some including me do not have the ability or time to go drive into eastern Oregon to get a tonne or so of coal to use, even though it only costs a few dollars. which leaves my fuel of choice to be charcoal, at least until I can get my waste oil burner working properly.
     So how do you go about making charcoal in a fireplace without it all burning up with the fire? It's really not all that hard, all that you need is a good nice steel can, the thicker the better. The can needs to have a loose lid or holes in the top to allow the wood gas somewhere to escape to. Fill the can full of wood and stick it in your fire and let  It sit in the fire until you don't see any more smoke or flames coming out of the holes or edge of the lid then let it sit in there for another ten minutes then pull it out leave the lid on until its cooled down then use the charcoal to your hearts content.
      About the flames coming out of the lid this is because of wood gas production which then the wood gas catches on fire, you don't have to worry about your charcoal burning. Wood gas is a product of heated up wood it is highly flammable, so flammable in fact that it can be used to power a car if the engine is converted slightly.
      So after an entire winter of this I should build up enough of a stock to be able to run the entire summer without having to buy any charcoal. if you have any questions leave a comment or shoot me a message.

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!