Subject: Re: [permaculture] Fwd: [SANET-MG] using carbon dioxide (to produce ethylene)
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 02:21:55 -0400
On 8/27/2012 12:39 AM, Alia Tsang wrote:
Nitrogen- and
phosphorus-enriched seawater can support both growth and ethylene
production.
I wonder if this could also be a way to reclaim phosphorous from seawater.
A solution for eutrophication?
Isn't it amazing? Since phosphorous would not be wasted when used by the
gene-modified cyanobacteria it should remain in its tissues after
extraction of ethylene just as rock phosphate remains in the manure of
poultry fed feedstock with that in it as a supplement. In fact that
phosphorous is responsible for off site leaching and waterway
eutrophication when such manure is applied to land irresponsibly.
I would imagine this material could and should be harvested along with
the ethylene for recycling as 1) livestock food supplement and 2)
fertilizer, assuming there are no persistent toxic byproducts attached
3) if its safe for human consumption it could be used in the soft drink
industry in place of phosphoric acid which begs the question: could it
be converted to phosphoric acid or would it need to be for that
application? It could be added to foods or vitamins too.
Among other issues would be what percentage of the phosphate in a unit
volume of sea water would the cyanobacteria absorb? Whether it would be
a useful amount for the purpose of recycling it in the tissues of the
cyanobacteria as a phosphate soil amendment is another matter though it
would be worthwhile as an NPK fertilizer nonetheless. An industrial
application might be to recycle the material to be used as a nutrient
mixture to grow 1) NPK-rich seaweed or in freshwater, a variety of
aquatic weeds including duckweed which could be fed a rich mixture of
cyanobacteria byproducts plus manure. So which would be the better
phosphate fertilizer, cyanobacteria or sea or fresh water aquatic weeds
fed with cyanobacteria?
What a great question you have raised. I wonder how best to follow
progress with this research and industrialization of any process that
results? I will ask Dr. Cummins in the sanet list about that.