Exciting news! This week, on Wednesday, the research group got the PBR's loaded! Each PBR contains 5 L of solution which is comprised of... 65 ml of algae, and Bristol concentrate (freshwater substitute) and DI water on a 1:9 ratio. Unfortunately, they came in Thursday morning to see PBR 1 had leaked and lost about 1/4 L of liquid. They tried their best to repair the leak, but despite their best efforts the leak persisted. On Friday afternoon they made the call to take PBR 1 out of this round of the experiment. They moved 2 L of solution from PBR 1 -> PBR 2, then discarded the rest of the solution. Picture: PBR 2 on Friday afternoon
0 Comments
Week 4 was our most exciting week thus far! The team checked on the algae each day and over the week the opacity greatly increased and the liquid became far greener. The pictures below are from day 1 and day 8. In addition the team finally got the PBR's fully ready to go! The lights are attached, everything is water tight, and they are in position. Now the team is just waiting on enough algae to grow so they can put it in the PBR's.
Starting week three the group was feeling confident in their design and the project felt like it was "getting off the ground." They built both PBR's and sealed them with silicone to make sure they were water tight. They also got the original strand of Chlorella vulgaris algae and put it in Proteose Medium in a fermentation jar. They put an extra hole in the top of the jar and fed an air stone through to make sure the algae was getting CO2. They hope to grow enough algae to put it in the PBR's sometime next week!
Beginning week two there were still many problems that the group had to solve. Therefore, they continued with their preliminary research. They figured out what sort of light they wanted to use, and the final design for the PBR's, ex..
|