Team:NYMU-Taipei/Hardware
We could not deny that if microalgae intensively undergoes nitrogen starvation , its biomass will definitely be declined, and the proportion of the total lipid in microalgae will still remain decreasing. Hence, after research, we found out that when the growth curve of microalgae reached its stationary phase, the equilibrium would be broken, and the pH value of it will vibrate greater than before. We, therefore, decided to make out a brand new device which could function as showing the different circumstances or the pH-altering in a short period of time.
Since our ultimate purpose is to make our nitrogen starvation project works in an open pond, and the device will basically work on the surface of the water, we then choose acrylic as the main material of our device body and a moving pH detector combined with the device driven by a linear actuator. This design will make sure that the device is waterproof and that the pH detector will not be covered by microalgae.
As we are now living in a big data era, Internet and far-distance information sending is no longer new and seem even more common nowadays. Our device also includes these two important elements to make the data-collection more conveniently, which is: a self-designed app which could immediately get a notification of the device when the pH value changed no matter where we are!
Last but not least, taking environment-friendly issues under consideration, we add in a little stepping motor on the device so that it can be retrieved easily.
Reference
- Zhang Dan. Studies on Equilibrium pH Values of Micro Algal Medium. Acta Hydrobiologica Sinica Vol. 38, No.3.
- Supratim Ghosh. Improvement of Biomass Production by Chlorella sp. MJ 11/11 for Use as a Feedstock for Biodiesel. Appl Biochem Biotechnol. DOI 10.1007/s12010-015-1503-8
