Street Art as Solar-powered Biofuel Generator

From vertical farms to solar forests, neutralizing the carbon footprint of urban centers is one of the most popular trends in design.

Los Angeles firm Emergent Architecture has come up with a concept that combines public art with creating biofuel. Called a "photobioreactor," the aquarium-like structure would contain green algae colonies, also known as pond scum, which produce an oil that can be processed into a biodiesel fuel that can replace petroleum-based diesel fuel.

Even better, green algae consumes carbon dioxide, which is the leading driver of human-propelled global warming.

The system would use "tuned LED lights which vary in color and intensity to support algae growth at different stages of development, maximizing output," according to Emergent. (I'm not quite sure what this means, but suspect it has something to do with recent developments in using nano-materials to create LEDs that surpass their conventional cousins in the colors of light they can produce.)

A thin-film solar array strung into the branches of nearby street trees would collect energy during the day; stored in batteries, it would power the bioreactor's systems at night.

The firm has imagined a Los Angeles-based installation of bioreactors into the sides of buildings, as well as a public art piece for a Perth, Australia involving freestanding bioreactors built to evoke the shapes of cellular structures.

Rather than just stand and symbolize something, say the designers, the installation would also be doing something useful: using and creating clean energy. "Now, one could argue that artwork shouldn't actually do work," they acknowledge. But "if this decade in human civilization has presented us with any resonant knowledge about our world, it is that energy is culturally precious, that it is possibly the ultimate medium.

"Energy may indeed be one of the most timely mediums for art."

Image via Emergent Architecture

Via Solar Feeds