Outdoor prototype testing has begun recently, and the weather has finally gotten warmer for good it seems. We took a pre-existing design and altered it to work in a creek. This is what it looks like.
This design can be scaled to fit basically any size/shape pond. The belt is a double layered plastic embroidery sheet, with cheesecloth between the two sheets. The things that hold the belt in place, I'll call them belt guides, are PVC and come in two different forms. The first kind is a complete square, to enclose the belt. The second has two prongs to guide the belt. The second type is more efficient.
The belt has been in the water for about a week now, and this is what it looks like up close.
After March 16's post, Inventors Club is going try to incorporate these control structures, because it seems we could get a lot of yield from this. We would need some sort of efficient harvesting method. The harvester for this belt design is coming on 3/31. I'm not the expert on the harvester, so when it's implemented I'll post pictures and explanations. It uses rotating nail brushes to remove algae.
I look forward to hearing some feedback on this design!
...so the idea would be to feed the belt slowly across the water flowing through the control structure, harvest the material with the brushes and release it back into the pond (presumably at a point far from the outflow)?
ReplyDeleteThis idea does not incorporate the control structure yet. (Though, would it be difficult to do what you thought, feed the belt slowly across the control structure?) This design would simply sit in the effluent canal to collect algae. However, the harvester that we are constructing now could potentially be used with a control structure design.
ReplyDeleteAs for returning the algae to the shrimp ponds, we are contacting a group of U of I students who are working with algae, and they are baking collected algae in sheets. This is something we discussed earlier, baking them in the sun, and when we get information about it, we'll post it.
The baking idea is interesting.
ReplyDeleteMounting the device in the concrete control structure will be fairly simple. Putting it there allows you to strain algae from the pond as it leaves the pond and accelerates your yeild rates well beyond what you could get through simple growth rates. That allows you to use less material in your belt and keep initial costs low. Plus you can use the energy from the falling water to drive your belt and raise the slurry above water level.
The remaining question is "will the yeild grow shrimp?" We'll be testing that at Aquamar beginning April 30th.
If you can get me a prototype of the belt and brushes by Monday, I can take it back to Belize with me to test with the IJC students.