Comments on: Foldable Greenhouse by Daniel Schipper

By: Joan Michaels paque

Joan Michaels paque — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:25:12 +0000

Fantastic! Daniel\’s ideas have great potential
for solving some of our ecological and space
problems.

By: commandersprocket

commandersprocket — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:20:24 +0000

I REALLY like this concept. As I believe
A) the US needs to create energy independence. We need a close cycle CO2 system for this so we can not cook the world. Petroleum for transportation use seems to be the trickiest part of this.
B) We will need to use a variety of methods, but it seems like a majority of that energy will come from algae based oil. (and algae solids based alcohol).
C) The best way to grow that algae seems to be vertically in the US SW in greenhouses.

If we are really going to build twelve thousand square miles of greenhouses, it would make sense to use recycled
plastic and to mass produce the greenhouses and erect them where needed.

By: commandersprocket

commandersprocket — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:55:08 +0000

I REALLY like this concept. As I believe that
A) the US needs to reach toward energy independence as quickly as possible.
1) the most difficult to address portion of this energy is transportation energy (a replacement for petroleum oil)
2) the existing vehicle fleet will will remain with us for 10-20 years (with possible replacement with electric vehicles, massively improved public transportation, hydrogen cars powered indirectly through renewables, or radicaly more efficient hybridized cars using high tech composites and aerodynamic designs )
B) The primary means of reaching towards that independence looks more and more like it will be algae based oil and alcohols (most likely genetically modified bacteria that turn algal solids into butanol)
C) Growing that algae will happen most efficiently in vertical racks, in containment (to avoid massive H20 losses), in the desert SW of the US, inside greenhouses.

So, imagine if we could take our waste plastic streams and turn them into algae farms that could be “unfolded” and plugged in (to H20 and algae nutrition on the IN side, and lipid extraction and fermentation on the OUT side).