Team:NYMU-Taipei/Hardware
We could not deny if microalgae intensively undergoes nitrogen starvation, then, its biomass will decline, and whether 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 of the pH-altering in a short period of time.
Since our ultimate purpose is to make our nitrogen starvation project work 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 the big data era, Internet of things (IOT) is no longer new and seems even more common nowadays. Our device also includes two important elements that can make the data-collection more convenient, which are: a self-designed app which could immediately get a notification of the device when the pH value changed no matter where we are!
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
