When considering methods for open source DIY DACC: safety, cost, collective experience and technical barriers to entry come as primary concerns. Humans have been cultivating, growing and farming for thousands of years, growing something seems like a good place to start. But what to grow and what to do with the resulting plant matter? Maybe starting with Bamboo? It’s the fastest growing plant on our planet (a member of the grass family) it grows easily and in poor soil. Then we could take the bamboo and make it into biochar to add to our soils or treat it and make it into things: houses, furniture, bikes, scaffolding, etc.
However here we run into land use issues and the fact that more than half the worlds human population lives in cities. Meaning they have no access to land to farm anything. So here is where Algae enters the arena, as it can grow in containers in indoor settings that would not be suitable for bamboo. It seams to have greater potential for CO2 removal per mass, depending on variety and growing conditions than even Bamboo.
I have started collecting information and doodling out some CAD models for what an experimental system could look like here: https://gitlab.com/zenquest/algae-dacc
A few people have asked me what should happen to the grown algae. There are many use cases for algae from bio fuels to food, 3d printable plastic’s to hydrogen producing algae. However I’m thinking it would be best to focus first on how to grow it as rapidly and with as few inputs as possible. Then people can fork the project off in different directions to make different things.
Ocean algae are sensitive to pH and temperature: Coccolithophore Response to pH and Temperature