This is super interesting! Sounds from the article like the main point is to remove CO2 from the air to improve air for humans. That's already really exciting. In essence it's a CO2 scrubber right? So how does this compare to devices built with the goal to remove CO2 with the goal to reduce climate change?
Edit: To answer my own question, this probably does little. They have a home use version that supposedly removes as much Co2 as twenty indoor plants. The paper linked below had three most efficient plant remove about 17% of Co2 in a cubic meter of air with optimal light conditions. So twenty of those wouldn't have much impact in a reasonably sized dwelling. That's assuming it's equivalent to the most efficient plant and great lighting. I cannot imagine the much larger installation at the airport making much of a difference either given the massive amount of air.
So this tank removes around 0.25kg of co2 per day.
By comparison, an average human exhales 1kg co2 per day. So you need four of those tanks to offset a single passenger passing by.
This does virtually nothing for the air freshness, and is possibly not even carbon negative if you were to count emissions from the device cleanup and algae storage.
Agree, I nevertheless bought one of their (AlgenAir) home devices, despite the fact that at present levels of efficiency I would need 100 of them to make a material difference in CO2 levels in a normal room. My thinking is that even given the incredible degree of efficiency of photosynthesis itself, there must be opportunities for other bioengineering-type improvements and 100x is not an unreasonable target over a 10-20 year timeframe. My dollars are an economic signal in support of investment in a machine to turn electricity into captured CO2.
That said, having had the device for a few months, it brings plenty of present value. It's pretty, a literal living lava lamp, and it makes a lovely water bubbly sound. Watching the algae population grow in concentration and change the color of the water is very satisfying.
I have my doubts about this. In my experience, a house full of cannabis plants photosynthesizing full tilt under 15,000 watts of lights would still show elevated CO2 when two people went to it and tended it. Maybe the algae get around that, but I need to see some numbers.
>A human breathes about 9.5 tonnes of air in a year, but oxygen only makes up about 23 per cent of that air, by mass, and we only extract a little over a third of the oxygen from each breath. That works out to a total of about 740kg of oxygen per year. Which is, very roughly, seven or eight trees' worth.
This is going off topic but what an interesting idea... Can plants work day and night if you give them light 24x7? I assume they don't need to rest or get tired?
If you really want to have a less CO2-heavy stuffy indoor air, what you can use is an air-to-air heat exchanger. The idea is to get fresh air from outside, but transfer heat from the outgoing Co2-rich air to the incoming fresh air so you don't waste the heating (reverse in case of air conditioning, I suppose).
If the problem is Co2 in the outdoor air, I'm afraid that's a much bigger problem that you're not gonna solve with a tank.
CO2 or Oxygen levels are normally never a problem, not even on mount Everest (where the air pressure is the problem). It's for sure not a solution but an interesting research field to remove toxic chemicals...for long duration spaceflight/bases ;)
Based on the photo, it seems more of a showpiece than an actually practical way of filtering large quantities of air. Those bubble columns are at most a few liters of air per minute -- not much more than your usual aquarium pump -- when large air purifiers are in the hundreds or even thousands of cubic feet per minute. I just can't imagine passing that much air through the columns without sending greenish water all over unsuspecting passengers. Unless this treated air has a synergistic effect on the surrounding air, like negative ions or ozone, this won't make the air significantly cleaner.
Buying a CO2 meter for the office - especially a closed-door small room one - is something almost all indoor workers should invest in. As you noted, it gets over 1000ppm quite easily.
My office is an interior one without a window to the outdoors, so I have to flap the door open here or there along with the exterior door about 100 feet away. HVAC doesn't do much to help.
If I am in the office with the door closed for 2 hours (I share it with one other person), 1000ppm happens regularly.
This thread is about indoor air pollution. Trees aren't going to help with that. The best way to reduce it is to open a window.
For outdoor air pollution, planting trees can actually increase it[1]. Even in ideal conditions, planting trees is not nearly enough to stop climate change. The best way to fix the CO2 problem is stop producing it, not to try to clean it up.
Any power consumption figures for a room of X people? I have to bombard my aquarium with powerful lights and co2 injection to get some pearling (oxygen bubbles). I would also imagine the lights to be blue+red peak grow lights to optimize photosynthesis and the glass tubes to be thinner to minimize attenuation of light in liquid.
[+] [-] ajmurmann|3 years ago|reply
Edit: To answer my own question, this probably does little. They have a home use version that supposedly removes as much Co2 as twenty indoor plants. The paper linked below had three most efficient plant remove about 17% of Co2 in a cubic meter of air with optimal light conditions. So twenty of those wouldn't have much impact in a reasonably sized dwelling. That's assuming it's equivalent to the most efficient plant and great lighting. I cannot imagine the much larger installation at the airport making much of a difference either given the massive amount of air.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315968651_Effective...
[+] [-] kolinko|3 years ago|reply
Another way to ballpark this - the airport tank holds 500 liters of spirulina. Algae extract around 0.5kg co2 per 1000 liters ( https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/sustainability/sustainabil... ).
So this tank removes around 0.25kg of co2 per day.
By comparison, an average human exhales 1kg co2 per day. So you need four of those tanks to offset a single passenger passing by.
This does virtually nothing for the air freshness, and is possibly not even carbon negative if you were to count emissions from the device cleanup and algae storage.
Green washing at it’s finest.
[+] [-] bawolff|3 years ago|reply
Airports are stresful and noisey. Imagine how calming it would be with greenery all over the place absorbing the noise.
[+] [-] jonahbenton|3 years ago|reply
That said, having had the device for a few months, it brings plenty of present value. It's pretty, a literal living lava lamp, and it makes a lovely water bubbly sound. Watching the algae population grow in concentration and change the color of the water is very satisfying.
[+] [-] garte|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnJamesRambo|3 years ago|reply
>A human breathes about 9.5 tonnes of air in a year, but oxygen only makes up about 23 per cent of that air, by mass, and we only extract a little over a third of the oxygen from each breath. That works out to a total of about 740kg of oxygen per year. Which is, very roughly, seven or eight trees' worth.
[+] [-] pooper|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] martopix|3 years ago|reply
If the problem is Co2 in the outdoor air, I'm afraid that's a much bigger problem that you're not gonna solve with a tank.
[+] [-] nix23|3 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study
[+] [-] tkanarsky|3 years ago|reply
It does look cool, though.
[+] [-] blitzar|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WalterBright|3 years ago|reply
Want to reduce CO2 levels outside? Plant trees. They're solar-powered green machines, turning CO2 into building materials, paper, and fuel.
[+] [-] icelancer|3 years ago|reply
My office is an interior one without a window to the outdoors, so I have to flap the door open here or there along with the exterior door about 100 feet away. HVAC doesn't do much to help.
If I am in the office with the door closed for 2 hours (I share it with one other person), 1000ppm happens regularly.
Some good reading for any passersby on the topic:
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/tags/co2
[+] [-] smt88|3 years ago|reply
This thread is about indoor air pollution. Trees aren't going to help with that. The best way to reduce it is to open a window.
For outdoor air pollution, planting trees can actually increase it[1]. Even in ideal conditions, planting trees is not nearly enough to stop climate change. The best way to fix the CO2 problem is stop producing it, not to try to clean it up.
1. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200521-planting-trees-d...
[+] [-] bmitc|3 years ago|reply
https://algenair.com/
[+] [-] ryanmerket|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aitchnyu|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yread|3 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33027184
[+] [-] maxrev17|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ipqk|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] goldforever|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] pyuser583|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] dang|3 years ago|reply
It's particularly important not to do this when there aren't any comments yet, because threads are so sensitive to initial conditions.