Micro algae nest / Innovation Center by Nour el Houda Djellali

The proposal Innovation Center, lies through the creation of bioreactors with the task of purifying the air from carbon dioxide. The idea is to convert the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide into fuel with the help of an environmental algae

Micro algae nest / Innovation Center (Research & Production)

Design Philosophy:

“I think the biggest innovations of the 21st century will be at the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning.” Said Steve Jobs

In a way to improve our energy security, and avoid the bitter reality of global warming is home-grown fuel sources which became more important than ever, therefore algae are the most promising long term, Sustainable sources of biomass for fuel, food, feed, and other co-products. Algae are a small aquatic organism that have the ability to convert the sunlight into energy and store it in the form of oil.

The proposal lies through the creation of bioreactors with the task of purifying the air from carbon dioxide. The idea is to convert the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide into fuel with the help of an environmental algae, cultivating nests of algae in the most densely populated areas around the world as a future approach, Algae or more correctly, microalgae, are more efficient than any other known organism or engineered process, they have the ability to double their numbers every few hours, can be harvested daily, and produce a volume of biomass and biofuel many times greater than our most productive crops.

Once the site is selected, the process will be by creating a structure system, contains of ribs that the algae can use as a nest to prosper in it, algal will form different shapes and sizes according to the quantity and time of harvesting.

The aim of cultivating nests of algae is to create an ecosystem that allow the organisms to interact with their environment, as an engine for biodiversity conservation and protection for endangered and other threatened species. 

The thing that make it more interesting that Dr. Hernandez, Assistant Professor, and Chemical Engineering program, at Masdar Institute said “Algae do not depend on being grown in the ocean. In fact, in the UAE, there is the ability to use non-habitable land, such as the desert in the Western Region, for algae growth. As such, a properly designed and constructed algae growth facility will not have an impact on the marine ecosystem of the Arabian Gulf”

The potential

Urban and environmental context

Since 1965, the world’s population has doubled and is currently growing by nearly 80 million people per year, during the last 150 years human beings are burning more fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation, therefore human activities are the main reason for the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Although the earth’s temperature rising has been eased slightly in the last decade, but climate crisis still loom.

The Scientists and Researchers had indicated a new calculations that if the world continues burning fossil fuel, Greenhouse gases will increase causing a global warming of up to two degrees Celsius by the year 2036 that will harm the human civilization. To Slow down the threshold, nations will have to keep carbon dioxide levels below 405 parts per million.

There is no doubt that the stage of the depletion of oil will start in the near period of time and to find an alternative sources produced from a clean energy sources of vitality became inevitable.

The oil could run out of more than 95% of on the surface of the earth sources, the food is also a problem likely to occur in the case of the use of agricultural products or waste in bio fuel for the production of fuel products such as biodiesel, ethanol, bio-gasoline and other bio-fuel products. Using satellite observations, NASA scientists measure air pollution and they found that there is a strong relation between urban population and air pollution, therefore people Living in a large cities like: New York, London & Shanghai are more likely to be exposed to air pollution than people in smaller cities.
“The UAE produced almost 20 tons of CO2 emissions per person in 2010, a 63 percent increase from 2000” Says The UAE state of Energy Report, according to Dubai Electricity and water authority each person uses a giant 20,000 Kilowatt-hour of energy and 130 gallons of water per year, which is 82 percent above the global average and three times higher than average per capita consumption in the European Union.

Social and cultural context 

“The environment is in us, not outside of us, the trees are our lungs, the rivers our bloodstream. We are all interconnected, and what you do to the environment, ultimately you do to yourself”. Said lan Somerhalder
We admit that we are responsible for the increase in Carbon dioxide, but we need to save our planet before its too late, these facts and statistics drove us to rethink about the future, Oil is not the promising future anymore, sooner or later, Algae will stationed in the lead and   replace oil by relying on the production of biofuels instead of fossil fuels to run cars and aircraft.

However, cities are facing lots of challenges to maintain the situation in a way to achieve the equilibrium, without allowing the greenhouse gases to overwhelm our daily lives and affect the health of living organisms, the point is not to evacuate and reduce the number of population in urban areas, but to take an action and create a catharsis system into the urban areas.
The UAE is planning to become a leader in algae industry by the year 2020, competing major countries which have already started to implement sustainability by producing energy and biofuels from the algae industry.

Dr. Hector H. Hernandez, Assistant Professor, and Chemical Engineering program, Masdar Institute, said: “The algae available in the UAE desert is unique because it is local to the UAE and can withstand major changes in temperature. It can also live under high salinity ranges, one of the ‘highest’ to date of any algae species, and can be used throughout the year, offering a long harvesting season. Algae from the UAE and from deserts are a very new area of research and we are still working with industrial partners to identify the upper limit of how much algae we can grow in the UAE.” Adding In the biofuels-from-algae market, the UAE is uniquely positioned to make a strong impact whereas the native algae have evolved to grow under a wide range of temperatures and salinities and the production of biofuels using these strains of algae are not expected to compete with the fresh water supply or with food production in the UAE”.    

Innovation Center grafic file:

Concept idea:

Diagrams:

Site plan:

Innovation Center plans:

01| Ground floor:

02| first and second floor:

03| Third floor:

04| Section:

05| Elevation:

Architect: Nour el Houda Djellali
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering
Ajman University of Science & Technology
Project: Micro algae nest / Innovation Center (Research & Production)
Loacation: Dubai, Ras al khor