Urban Algae Canopy Produces a Forest’s Worth of Oxygen Daily

Generating as much oxygen per day as 400,000 square feet of natural woodland, the Urban Algae Canopy combines architecture, biology and digital technology to create a structure that generates energy, responds to and enhances its environment.

Created by EcoLogics Studio and demonstrated in Milan, Italy, this “world’s first bio-digital canopy integrates micro-algal cultures and real time digital cultivation protocols on a unique architectural system,” with flows of water and energy regulated by weather patterns and visitor usage. Sun increases photosynthesis, for example, causing the structure to generate organic shade in realtime. In addition to CO2 reduction, the canopy as a whole can produce over 300 pounds of biomass daily, all through a relatively passive system that requires far less space and upkeep than conventional civic greenery.

LINK

Wow ! This is cool ! I know this is just in the beginning stages but I hope to see this blow up like solar !

Imagine having these around major cities where the air is yellow and stale .

Start with China perhaps !

Also you will find a the link ,another link to a concept that is being worked on right now . Smog eating street lamps !
sorta uses the same Process with the Algae .

another check on "Hope for Humanity"

Kap.

Thank you for sharing, sounds great and as move in right directions. I can imagine those being around the city blocks cleaning air. Hope technology will be available everywhere and seems it will increase quality of life.

S & F

a reply to: Kapusta

This is wonderful idea, and if truely does generate that much oxygen, I hope to see these in smaller models for indivdual purchase, because I'd buy one

I belive we can create everything that us necessary to clean up the Earth we have slowly pillaged, and rejuvenate it's properties to restore balance in nature once again.

We just need science to stop sending satellites and rock surveying robots ... and use our top scientists and billions of tax payers dollars, to get on the right track.

When we fix earth, then let's study Mars rocks

Thanks for sharing this,the potential is massive each day..

a reply to: Kapusta

Cool! S&F for the find!

Just by curiosity, It says that it makes as much oxygen than "a forest". So... how many kg of oxygen does this thing produces per volume?

originally posted by: Elementalist
a reply to: Kapusta
We just need science to stop sending satellites and rock surveying robots ... and use our top scientists and billions of tax payers dollars, to get on the right track.

When we fix earth, then let's study Mars rocks

Sorry, but I just fail to see how did you manage to get these 2 things together.

Space exploration is in slow-mode since last space race, yet you would even kill current exploration with premise that we should first 'fix' earth, even all points that we are more toward working of destroying it. (this project is little light and might be able to shift fight, but in NO WAY is connected to space exploration.

Reason we should explore universe and try to colonize it is quite simple - as Dr. Michio Kaku once said - it is not wise to keep all eggs in single basket....

However, project like this actually could help with terraforming of planets...

It's a great idea!

We could continue polluting and being oil dependant so this is a win-win situation for the psychopaths that rule us...oh, unless they do want us sick on a dead planet.

...could too much oxygen "pop" our atmosphere?

Probably a VERY dumb question but for some reason my thoughts went directly to it after I visualized millions of these devices being used.

You can all laugh at me now

a reply to: RedParrotHead

I don't think that your question is dumb or something we should all laugh about...

Here is good source at what would happen if we double amount of oxygen in our atmosphere...

www.quora.com...

I believe last line kind of sums it up...

In other words, we would all burn twice as bright for half as long.

I find this interesting from the same source....

One potential detrimental effect would be on lifespans: more oxygen would mean more oxidative stress caused by oxygen radicals in metabolism (Protein oxidative damage is associated with life expectancy of houseflies). The damage ranges from DNA and cellular damage all the way to central nervous system modifications (Hyperoxia, reactive oxygen species, and hyperventilation: oxygen sensitivity of brain stem neurons). Oxygen really is a double-edged sword: for all its positives, its also a toxic element; all cells have defences against it, but the degree to which they're geared to higher atmospheric levels is a question mark, although adaptation is very likely, as shown by this study which successfully selected for flies to live in 90% oxygen.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: Kapusta

Cool! S&F for the find!

Just by curiosity, It says that it makes as much oxygen than "a forest". So... how many kg of oxygen does this thing produces per volume?

hahah I wish I could answer that for you , But I was not able to find the information on the link ! Ill have to keep poking around until i find something .

YESSS!! I Love this! The Science and Technology forum always has such Amazing threads! Things like this give me such HOPE for the future!
I am genuinely excited for it, Thank you for bringing this to us OP!

a reply to: Elementalist

And no mention of the trillion dollar military budgets, and constant desire to blow stuff up with that money....how bout we start there instead of the space budget!!!

Great idea...let's just hope big lumber don't get any ideas.

The amount of functions a tree performs from climate moderation to water retention to soil decompression to aquifer recharging to carbon sequestration..etc, not to mention its role in oxygenation, tells me that our love affair with technology often results in a view of net gain through myopic, narrow functions that for the foreseeable future will be far outperformed by the elements of nature that millions of years of trial and error has developed.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology and it has its place but I wish more people would study the science of natural systems and understand that our reality is holistic and interconnected. IMO, our "developed" culture will return to being fully integrated into the ecosystem but only after we flirt with technologies that prove again and again that we can't separate ourselves from nature and then band-aid the resulting material and energy logjam with single purpose technologies/methodologies. See the tail-chasing of nutritionism, self-sufficiency/carbon neutrality and agriculture as it currently stands at our stage of culture.

My answer of course would be more trees in the urban setting and less dense population centers. All that said...it's a cool piece of tech, and might serve a short-term purpose for large cities, but not as comprehensive a benefit that we would gain by just planting more trees as "unsexy" as that sounds.

a reply to: Kapusta

What are the chances of sending a few to Mars?

a reply to: SuperFrog

Hope technology will be available everywhere

it will...for sure...if somebody can make some greens grow.

originally posted by: SuperFrog
a reply to: RedParrotHead

I don't think that your question is dumb or something we should all laugh about...

Me neither, on the contrary, it would be intensely stupid to roll these out to use without first assessing what the consequences would be.

These do look like a great idea, but increasing oxygen as a means of countering urban air pollution/quality is rather simplistic, and not in the good way.

Great now we can destroy more forests.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
Great now we can destroy more forests.

It does appear to be a facility by which we can continue to behave badly towards our environment and the other forms of life we share it with.

Rather than changing and taking responsibility for our behaviour, we're proposing that the domesticating of yet another life form will solve our problems. We're the living consequence of 11,000 years of that kind of anthropocentric short sightedness and it's driving us to extinction.

There's a face palm in there somewhere. I'm sure of it.

a reply to: Anaana

They will artistically leave behind tree trunks to create the face palm of the Amazon that can be seen from the ISS.

so very sad.