Algae Bioreactor
After reading some articles about refining biodiesel from different oils, and learning about algae, I had the idea to try to make biodiesel from algae. Without much experience in any of the fields related to this, the first requirement of course was to gather some algae, and find a way to grow it. So, in two iterations, I build this algae reactor, made from transparent pipe, a daylight lamp I had previously used for some hydroponics experiments, a small pump, and some lasercut parts.
The first iteration was made completely with lasercut parts, but threading the plastic tubing turned out to be incredibly impractical, and I ended up braking the frame after the first 4 revolutions. So the second iteration only had the base and top lasercut, but the structural columns made up of threaded rod, and the tubing secured to it with some cord. This was still a lot of work to put together, but easier than the purely lasecut version, and ended up working quite well.
Further references
- Tumblr Posts 1 2 3
- Project documentation at the Munich Maker Lab Wiki