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10. Open Source Hardware

This week I worked with my friend- vidisha goel, and we wanted to make an algae bioreactor, the idea of building a bioreactor was proposed by Anastasia, when we asked her what to do with the waste plastic bottles. As we researched about uses of algae, we were fascinated and were keen on growing our own algae.

Research

What is a bioreactor? It sounds like a complicated piece of high tech, but it’s really something that pumps air through algae. On a large scale, bioreactors can help scrub CO2 and some pollutants from the air and return oxygen. The air is pumped via a compressor, through a solution containing algae. The algae takes the CO2 and uses it for growth and in return, gives off oxygen which is released back into the surrounding air.

For now, the machine is connected to a power source, but we want to connect it to a solar setup, so it saves energy and cost!

In professional algae bio-reactors they use Carbon-dioxide tanks to supply it to the algae, but we can also connect one end of the pipe to the airput inlet and the other in mycelium bag- as mycelium releases carbondioxide while growing.

Algae is truly revolutionary, here are some links where you can discover how algae is changing the world -

Here are some links to read about algal pigments and it's extraction process -

The Professional Algae-Bioreactor -

HOW IT WORKS DIAGRAM INDUSTRIAL BIOREACTOR HOW WE STARTED MAKING IT SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM CONNECTIONS FIRST TRIAL SECOND TRIAL FINAL BIOREACTOR

HILO MACHINE

ABOUT HILO HILO LINK HILO PDF FILES OUR VIDEO OF MAKING HILO

Last update: 2022-02-03