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Void

Member

Registered: 2011-12-29

Posts: 7,141

Partial Photovoltaic, partial biological photosynthisis.

I am pasteing some information here which I think has potential for Mars but was not originally intended for Mars it would seem.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-mic … -fuel.html

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Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy to chemical energy and storing it in the bonds of sugar. There are two parts to photosynthesis -- a light reaction and a dark reaction. The light reaction converts light energy to chemical energy and must take place in the light. The dark reaction, which converts CO2 to sugar, doesn't directly need light to occur.

"We've been able to separate the light reaction from the dark reaction and instead of using biological photosynthesis, we are using solar panels to convert the sunlight to electrical energy, then to a chemical intermediate, and using that to power carbon dioxide fixation to produce the fuel," Liao said. "This method could be more efficient than the biological system."

Liao explained that with biological systems, the plants used require large areas of agricultural land. However, because Liao's method does not require the light and dark reactions to take place together, solar panels, for example, can be built in the desert or on rooftops.

Theoretically, the hydrogen generated by solar electricity can drive CO2 conversion in lithoautotrophic microorganisms engineered to synthesize high-energy density liquid fuels. But the low solubility, low mass-transfer rate and the safety issues surrounding hydrogen limit the efficiency and scalability of such processes. Instead Liao's team found formic acid to be a favorable substitute and efficient energy carrier.

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I am not totally sure, but I am guessing that they care generating O2 and formic acid with solar electricity, and if this is not wrong, it might be easier than creating O2 and H2.  They also only mention C02, but I am sure H20 is needed in the process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formic_acid

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 … 171607.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithoautotroph

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php … a_eutropha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralstonia_eutropha

While I am not saying that greenhouses with plants could not be used, this process might be useful for the production of bulk indistrial materials, and to manufacture a "Fish Food" of sorts, to feed fish with of course, fish in tanks.

And it is also very likely that fungi (Mushrooms) could subsist upon a soil where such substances were injected.  They can grow on soils where oil spills have poluted the ground, and incedently they clean the soil up.

Last edited by Void (2012-03-30 23:27:24)

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Done.

Void

Member

Registered: 2011-12-29

Posts: 7,141

Re: Partial Photovoltaic, partial biological photosynthisis.

Someone posted a reply!  Wait, it's me.

Anyway, Mushrooms and fish.

Mushrooms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_fungi_eat

While Mushrooms do have some food value, it is my opinion that tinkering with them might allow them to also accumulate other food factors.  Genetic tinkering I would think.  For instance they should have no need for Muscle protein, but what if they could be caused to accumulate it in the "Fruits".  (The thing we generally call the Mushroom).  What about Carbohydrates and Fats and other vitimens that are not normal for a mushroom?

It might be OK for the Mushrooms so altered to do this if humans provide them with a very rich diet.  I don't know how Formic Acid would play into it, but I am going to suppose that if you had a soil and injected it, and had a variant of the bacteria which has been described, but one which simply makes bacteria from energy, not Alcohols, I expect that the mushrooms would live on that, the dead of the bacteria.

So, this is a very low maintenance livestock, mushrooms.  Have a pressurized moist dark place with Oxygen and a chemical energy source suitable, then have specially adapted Mushrooms, then have a farm. 

Caves, Buildings on the surface (Since it is not likely that on Mars, toxic forms of Mushrooms would contaminate your "Farm".

I feel that it would be both efficient and moral.  Mushrooms do not waste energy heating themselves like mammals we use for food, and they do not move about, and they do not need light.  Just appropriate chemicals, and symbiotic Microorganisms.  And when you pick a mushroom, you are not really killing the creature, it mostly lives in the soil.  You are only taking the fruit.

As for fish, that a bit lower on the morality pyramid, still, we eat fish here, fish are cold blooded, (Except perhaps Tuna and Sharks and maybe some others).   So they don't waste boilogical energy on body heat.  They do swim, but in some cases this would not be a very active behavior, so they would not waste energy swimming around too much. Most likely their food would be a bacteria which would feed on the produced Formic Acid of the articles in the previous post.

And in the previous post where the mention of produced alcohol exists, obviously that coupled with an Oxygen supply implies Internal Combustion Engines, and Fuel Cells.

Hurray!

Last edited by Void (2012-03-30 23:44:00)

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Done.