Biofuel exemption planned for home heating oil
https://www.agcanada.com/daily/biofuel- … eating-oil
Exxon Gives Up on Much-Hyped Algae Biofuels
https://gizmodo.com/exxon-gives-up-on-a … 1850108146
Soybean oil for biofuels has limited impact on overall food prices
https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/news/ … ood-prices
Lichen it? They’re loving it. All the rain has been great for them
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-a … 5cc4w.html
'In really dry conditions lichens desiccate but don’t necessarily die. As soon as they become wet, they transform from crumbly shards into a soft velvety mass – and they start growing again.'
Done.
]]>I have now wondered if aerogel could be good for solar power. I recall a supervisor at the research center I worked at telling us that if you heat something up to 800 degrees, (I presume F), half of the energy radiates away, so if you were to focus a concentrating mirror on a heat exchanger, you face really nasty losses. So, I though aerogel. I was right turns out someone is on it now.
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/11/29/ne … ower-ball/
Quote:
Earlier this year, the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory ran the numbers and outlined the need to do something about industrial process heat, such as paper mills and other industrial processes that require heat.
“Fossil fuels account for about 87% of all manufacturing fuel use in the United States, which is essentially the same as four decades ago,” NREL observed, emphasizing the need for a strategic approach.
Quote:
The team is confident that the new aerogel will enable parabolic trough solar power systems to heat a circulating fluid up to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit. They also envision a modular, scalable system that could be deployed widely across industrial sites.
I have a feeling that kdb512 will like this one also. I recall him having some affinity for solar thermal.
I am going to work with materials from this topic over in http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 07#p204207 now.
Algae and other things will be featured.
Done
]]>Flavour compounds account for between a few ppm to 0.1% of the weight of food stuffs. Provided we can produce bulk food ingredients on Mars, flavourings are light enough to allow import from Earth.
This article discusses the potential for aerogels to heat up areas of the planet. The same material wouod be valuable for food production. Thin transparent plastic panels, perhaps an inch thick and covered in a 1cm layer of aerogel on each side, would keep water liquid within an internal raceway of tubes, through which algae and nutrient solution is passed.
https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/07/m … -habitable
From the Wikipedia article, expanding on your hint about protein ...
Use as human food crop
Duckweed is eaten by humans in some parts of Southeast Asia. It contains more protein than soybeans, so sometimes it is cited as a significant potential food source.[6][7]Some initial investigations to what extent duckweed could be introduced in European markets show little consumer objection to the idea.[8] NASA's Caves of Mars Project identified duckweed as a top candidate for growing food on Mars.[9]
(th)
]]>Perhaps duckweed will be more palatable? Very high protein, especially if we put as much nitrogen in as they can take, so probably not workable as a staple food unless we develop lower protein varieties. Good for animal feed though -- we could turn it into eggs and fish easily enough.
Duckweed would work just as well as microalgae in a tube farm concept, as it is a small, rootless floating plant. Unlike on Earth, we can ensure that it is farmed as a monocrop and under optimum conditions.
Another similar crop:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolffia_arrhiza
Wolffia is 40% starch. Maybe we can make bread and flour using wolffia?
By adding amylase enzymes we can break the starch down into sugars. From sugar we can make alcohol.
]]>Although micro-algae can grow 10x more quickly than land based crops, there are problems that limit their potential application on Earth. One of the difficulties of getting good yields from microalgae on Earth, is harvesting enough CO2 to supply it. Open raceway ponds partially solve this problem, but are vulnerable to bacterial, viral and fungal contamination. These problems will not exist on Mars. All we need do is compress the Martian atmosphere and inject seperated liquid CO2 into the water.
Algae can be grown in glass or polymer tubes. All nutrients can be recycled back into the water. There are none of inefficiencies associated with land based crops, such as nitrogen run off or water evaporation. Seperated algae paste is the only thing that leaves the system. Distilled water and feed nutrients enter the system and are used with 100% efficiency, given that there is no way for them to leave other than being consumed. On Mars, growing food in water filled tubes avoids the need for colonists spending time in greenhouses, where they are exposed to cosmic radiation. Colonising Mars requires that we produce a lot of food very cheaply. This was ultimately what drove human beings to colonise other lands here on Earth. America is wealthy in no small part, because of its ability to produce abundant food. Mars colonisation will succeed or fail, depending upon the ability of Martians to do the same thing.
But producing food that people will want to eat from micro-algae is a challenge. There are thousands of different micro-algae, many of them edible. We are only just beginning to explore how these might be used as food ingredients. Developing this technology is one of the most important milestones for achieving a city of 1 million people on Mars. Trying to feed those people with hundreds of square kilometres of heated, pressurised greenhouses, probably wont be affordable. But a few tens of square kilometres of thin panels, carrying coiled plastic tubes that rarely need servicing in any way, is a far more practical proposition.
Developing safe, nutritious and desirable food from micro-algae, is one of the most important steps on the road to space colonisation. It is one of those areas where third parties with more limited funding, can contribute most to achieving Elon Musk's vision.
]]>Symbiotic partnerships with algae help corals weather thermal stress
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/272 … mal-stress
The potential of microalgae biomass as a renewable resource
https://inhabitat.com/the-potential-of- … -resource/
Interest in microalgae-based fuels is growing because of their numerous advantages.
Onshore algae farms could become 'breadbasket for Global South'
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-onshore-a … lobal.html
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-video-fuel-mars-moon.html
A Duke research study is preparing to blast off to the Moon with NASA on Artemis I.
Dr. Tim Hammond, professor of medicine at Duke, and co-investigator Dr. Holly Birdsall created the "Fuel to Mars" study to identify genes and gene pathways that fuel-producing algae use to survive deep space. A duplicate control experiment is housed at the Durham VA hospital to see how the algae grow without exposure to radiation and microgravity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrEX1x0nN3s
Artemis which has been delayed already
Their findings could help pave the way for future human space explorers.
The Potential of Biomaterials for Human Space Exploration
https://www.newsweek.com/potential-biom … on-1742938
Biomaterials that aid human systems are a relatively new field
Long-term space travel is becoming increasingly likely as global organizations plan missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Yet it's no secret that venturing beyond Earth's atmosphere wreaks havoc on the human body.
To achieve these ambitious goals and take us one step closer to establishing a revolutionary spacefaring economy, our latest crop of explorers will need all the help they can get. The key to their survival may lie in cutting-edge biomaterials.
What are biomaterials?
Biomaterials are objects, substances or surfaces interacting with a biological system. This term has many applications in medicine, where biomaterials are used to enhance, replace and repair limbs and bodily functions. These materials can be either natural or synthetic in origin. Many prosthetic legs, for instance, are composed primarily of aluminum or titanium
What is the outlook for 3-D bioprinting of body parts?
Prolonged time spent space traveling translates to dangerous bone loss and cartilage deterioration. The European Space Agency (ESA) has invested in multiple 3-D bioprinting technologies to ensure people heading far, far away from Earth can utilize specialized technology to combat these issues.
Instead of packing bulky medical supplies, 3-D bioprinting allows individuals to respond to medical emergencies as they arise. So far, scientists working with the ESA have managed to print skin and bone samples in conditions that mimic those aboard a spacecraft. For skin, they created a biomaterial combining blood plasma with methylcellulose and alginate found in plants and algae. For the bone sample, they added calcium phosphate bone cement.
Biomaterial applications also exist for cosmic radiation protection.Because most trips to the ISS have only been for six to twelve months, cosmic radiation's effects have not yet been a major concern for astronauts. But a round-trip to Mars takes approximately 180 days.
Traditional materials for blocking radiation, such as lead and water, are unrealistically heavy for a long-term mission. But melanin, a naturally-occurring pigment that shields organisms from the sun's harmful rays, is a promising alternative to protect crews and keep weight down.
NASA may someday offer astronauts a bioengineered "sunblock" cream filled with selenomelanin. Tested by biochemists at Northwestern University, it combines the naturally occurring pigment with selenium, a metal that helps prevent cancer. When applied to skin cells, it rapidly absorbed and darkened the cells. In 2019, a similar biomaterial created with fungi was sent to the ISS for further testing.
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/541_ … m_999.html
Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of algae called Protocodium sinense which predates the origin of land plants and modern animals and provides new insight into the early diversification of the plant kingdom.
Discovered at a site in China, this 541-million-year-old fossil is the first and oldest green alga from this era to be preserved in three dimensions, enabling the researchers to investigate its internal structure and identify the new specimen with unprecedented accuracy. The study is published in BMC Biology, opening a window into a world of evolutionary puzzles that scientists are just beginning to unravel.
"Protocodium belongs to a known lineage of green algae and has a surprisingly modern architecture, showing that these algae were already well diversified before the end of the Ediacaran period," says co-author Cedric Aria, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto and based at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). "Its discovery touches the origin of the entire plant kingdom and puts a familiar name on the organisms that preceded the Cambrian explosion over half a billion years ago, when the world's first modern ecosystems emerged."
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