I stumbled upon the idea of making a photobioreactor and it's very easy to make.
Apparatus: a bottle/ jar, an aquarium air pump, nutrient solution, water(about ! litre), source of algae(pond water or pre-culture inoculation)
Setup: as shown in the image below.
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| Photo bioreactor |
You can put this setup in a closed room by wrapping the bottle/ jar with led light strips or put it by the window to allow sunlight to fall on the jar.
My Setup and Observations:
The complete experiment will take place indoors in presence of an LED light. The light will be turned on and off accordingly as algae have a circadian rhythm of utilising oxygen during night and producing oxygen during day. I might take some pictures outdoors(cause sunglight is the best lighting to click pictures).
08 December 2024, 13:24 IST
I used an empty plastic box, water(1 litre), a rechargeable study lamp with warm light, and an aquarium air pump.
Bubbles are not frothy.
08 December 2024, 19:14 IST
the foam was a little dense, indicative of denser/ viscous liquid. This is due to the formation of mucilaginous substances by the organisms. I am sure about this because the algae I inoculated formed a mucilaginous layer on the bottle before.
Turned off light at 00:00 IST
9 December 2024
Turned on light at 08:00 IST
Added few drops of milk as a nutrition solution along with 2 ml of 1 pinch common salt solution.
After adding salt solution, the frothyness of foam decreased as salt increases surface tension.
Turned off lights at 23:00 IST
10 December 2024
Turned on lights at 09:00 IST
The jar is smelling like algae. I observed a sheet of light green algae in the jar. I'm planning to improve the setup by transferring solution into a big jar or increasing number of jars with different types of algae(Spirulina is on my list but its pre culture is expensive).
Pictures taken at 16:00 IST
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| Image showing sheet of algae |
Added 1g of WHO ORS solution.
Lights off at 11 December 2024 00:00 IST
11 December 2024
09:00 IST
Water was cloudy in appearance compared to yesterday. water is smelly and nauseating(can be microcystis algae or might be contaminated with other organisms as the lid was open all the time and water was not sterilised before using)
Planning to change water tomorrow in case the water becomes more cloudy and release more pungent smell.
Picutres taken at 14:20 IST
Lights off at 12 December 2024, 00:12 IST
12 December 2024
Lights on at 09:30 IST
14:30 IST
I filtered the algae from previous culture and the algae which was growing in a bottle I left on terrace using a cloth piece and forceps.
Put the algae in a container. filled it half full and stired the water for about 1 minute. As I added soil in the previous container, soil sediments were seen.
I took out the algae and put it in a soap washed container. No odor was there before I added the algae. Filled the new container with potable water from the kitchen.
This time I made a hole in the cap of the container and inserted air pump tube through it. (in previous setup I left the container open).
Closed the screw cap(kind of air tight cap, but as I made hole for the tube, not perfectly air tight).
Before I closed the cap, I could smell similar smell from previous container. Can not confirm the smell was due to algae alone. Will have to wait for a while till the algae grows to confirm it.
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| setup 2.0 |
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| filtered out algae |
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| cloth used as a filter |
Lights off 23:00 IST
13 December 2024
Lights on 09:00 IST
No change seen in consistency of water. added 1 ml ORS solution as nutritient media. Base solution is 1.5 litre boiled potable water.
Lights off 22:00 IST
14 December 2024
Lights on 09:00 IST
23:00 IST
The bubbles are frothy. Indicative of change in solutes in water (probably mucilaginous substance from algae).
Lights off at 23:40 IST
15 December 2024
Lights on at 09:00 IST
No new observations except for the change in appearance of water. It's a little cloudy in appearance when seen under light, but under normal observation(natural light) it looks clear.
Lights off 23:40 IST
20 December 2024
Repeated lights on off cycle last week approx. 08:00 IST on and 23:00 IST off.
No significant growth or change in size of algae is observed.
Previously, water turned cloudy with in 2 days in an open container. Now that I closed the container with a lid and made just one hole to maintain pressure in the container, the water did not turn cloudy even in 10 days. This can confirm the change in appearance of the culture medium in previous setup can be due to other organisms growth and cannot be exclusively attributed to algae.
I did not add any nutrients to the medium in the past week.
I am able to observe some thin string like structures(they look sticky/ mucilagenous) hanging from the wall of the container and on the air pump tube submerged in water.
13:00 IST
Opened lid to check the growth of the algae. the algae was in the form of a ball glued together by white substance as shown in the video. This colony was at the bottom of the container.
I observed another algae with different green tone(a little dark green as shown in the video).
added 2g of ORS solution as nutrients. (I don't have a rationale as to why Im adding ors powder to the culture media. lets see what happens)
I placed another transparent bottle in shade on terrace and inoculated same algae in the bottle and filled it with tap water. obviously as it is exposed to sun for sufficient duration, it is showing growth more than the one I placed under led lights. might shift the set up to terrace if I don't see sufficient growth in the container by the end of December.
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