Doomsday Bunker Upgrade

Chapter 75: Algae cycle oxygen production to generate electricity

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To solve the problem of electricity consumption, either the biomass produced by the oxygen concentrator built by Chen Xin can be used to generate biogas power to meet its own consumption, or Chen Xin can continue to upgrade the power system of the current shelter and place his hopes on it. Upgrade it to a more self-sustaining power system, such as a nuclear reactor that can operate for decades.

The first option is naturally impossible because of conservation of energy.

If the biomass generated by the oxygen generator is used to generate biogas power to meet the system's own consumption, wouldn't it be said that it is a perpetual motion machine

Therefore, the way to solve the problem is to continue to upgrade the system, and to upgrade to energy saving and replacement.

It’s just that Chen Xin has checked his generator and power system. Among the system upgrade options, there are only two upgrade options: improving the working efficiency of the generator and improving the energy saving rate of the entire power system. He wants to upgrade it to other types of generators temporarily. Not yet possible.

However, this is not absolute. Chen Xin thought that when he upgraded his protective clothing before, he provided a tactical poncho so that the protective clothing had the function of a raincoat and a tactical camouflage on the surface. He felt that if he could provide other power generation methods, it could also be integrated. into the power system.

"If I integrate biogas power generation into the power system, use the gasoline generator as the main power, and the biogas power generation as the auxiliary power, and the two methods provide power at the same time..." Thinking that other power generation methods can be integrated into the power system, Chen Xin quickly took out a pen and paper Calculation. ,

"Currently, the consumption of greenhouses requires generators to consume 20 liters of gasoline per day to maintain, and this consumption remains unchanged... "

"The greenhouse can meet my own oxygen consumption when there is light, and there is still surplus output... But considering the overflow of the ventilation system and the oxygen consumption after turning off the lights... "

"When the lighting time remains unchanged for 12 hours, the oxygen produced by the greenhouse can sustain my consumption for 16 hours without considering the presence of external oxygen at all..."

"Prolonging the lighting time to increase oxygen production can provide me with the oxygen I need for 24 hours, but at least five hours of lighting must be added every day, and the gasoline consumption will increase from 20 liters/day to 30 liters/day... "

"If you build an algae circulation oxygen generator, the electricity consumption will be smaller than maintaining long-term lighting in a greenhouse. Coupled with the power supplement brought by biogas power generation, you only need to increase the gasoline consumption by 5 liters per day..."

After listing the various data and calculating them, Chen Xin easily calculated the results.

Looking at the results he calculated, Chen Xin touched his chin. It was obvious that building an algae circulating oxygen generator like the one he told Mo Qingyan was currently the least expensive solution.

And after Chen Xin built such an oxygen generator, he could completely upgrade the oxygen generator through the system to improve its oxygen production efficiency, biomass output, biogas reaction efficiency... and even transform biogas power generation into Material fuel cells may convert the produced biomass into edible algae.

Thinking of this, Chen Xin was sincerely glad that he picked up this system when he entered the shelter, instead of turning a blind eye to it as an ordinary meteorite.

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Now that he has decided to build an oxygen concentrator, Chen Xin obviously needs to take stock of the resources he has.

After all, this is not like upgrading an existing item. He can directly upgrade it with the help of the system's survival points.

This is also the biggest shortcoming of this system. It cannot create something out of thin air, it can only upgrade based on existing things.

No matter how crude and primitive the items used as the basis for upgrading are, as long as there is a material foundation, the system can continuously improve them.

But without this foundation, there is no need to talk about it.

So even if Chen Xin built a tank with wooden boards to let algae grow in the water, and then insisted that it was an oxygen concentrator, he still had to build the tank first.

Fortunately, Chen's supplies were not lacking, so he didn't have to be so primitive as to use wooden boards to build a sink.

To build an algae circulating oxygen generator, the first thing you need is not actually a water tank, but a foundation for algae to grow on, which is a biological facade.

This is not complicated. If you are not so particular, the screens used at home can also be used.

Let the algae attach to it, and then provide water, carbon dioxide and light. Soon the algae will begin to grow and reproduce, and perform photosynthesis to release oxygen.

As for the sink, this is actually not necessary, because you can hang a water pipe on the attachment of the algae and keep the algae moist through the water pipe without completely soaking it in the water.

If the conditions are better, it can provide a better base for algae to attach to.

The German technology is to make hollow glass plates, connect supply lines and discharge lines to these hollow glass plates, and then inject culture medium into the hollow glass plates to cultivate algae.

At the lower end of a single hollow glass plate, carbon dioxide as a nutrient is injected into the culture medium through a supply line to generate bubbles. The vortex formed during the rise of the bubbles will stimulate the algae in the culture medium to absorb carbon dioxide and light, perform photosynthesis, and continue to grow and reproduce.

When the algae grow and reproduce to a certain extent, the algae in these hollow glass panels are recycled and biomass is harvested.

According to experimental data given by the Germans at the time, one square meter of insulating glass panels could produce 900 kilograms of biomass a year and about 10 liters of methane per day. Two hundred square meters of insulating glass panels could produce 900 kilograms of biomass a year. Produce more than 600 cubic meters of methane.

When used for power generation, this methane can produce 4500kW/h electric energy and 6000kW/h thermal energy, which can be said to be quite clean and efficient.

Of course, the Germans use fuel cells instead of simply burning methane to release heat to generate electricity, which is much more efficient.

With the materials Chen Xin currently has on hand, he can only use screens or other things that are easy to attach to as a base for attachment, and then pour water on it and provide light to allow algae to grow.

To put it simply, you need to build a simple device first, let it run first, and then consider upgrading it to improve operating efficiency and expand production capacity.

All you need to make a simple device is a sink, a micro vacuum pump, a few PVC pipes and an attached facade.

After rummaging through his storage room, he quickly found the things he needed, although they might not be very useful and needed some modifications.

The size difference is so big that the pipes and vacuum pump cannot be connected. The sink is simply a plastic box, and the attached facade is also a screen removed from the window of the container house...

Looking at these things, Chen Xin felt that maybe he should make himself a workbench first. (End of chapter)