Want to go green? Then go algal

Students from Cambridge University have won an international award for their design of an “algae house”.

Could this power your house? False-colour scanning electron micrograph of the unicellular coccolithophore, Gephyrocapsa oceanica algae (credit: Photo by NEON ja, colored by Richard Bartz)

The team designed an “algae house”, which provided energy efficient living using the cultivation of algae to produce hydrogen and biomass as a renewable source of sustainable energy, equal to the energy consumption necessary to run the build, an equivalent size of a small home.

Algaetecture, the name of the winning design team, are all graduates of the University’s Departments of Architecture and Engineering and based their design on the biological principle that algae produce hydrogen more efficiently than any other process. Hydrogen produced from a 75m² algae pond could produce over 4000KW/h of sustainable energy, and this in turn, could be converted into electricity. The group incorporated algal tubes and a photo bio-reactor, as well as a glazing system to optimise the living conditions for the algae, into the house design.

Karuga Koinange, a founder member of the group, said: “Algae and people may not present themselves as obvious bedfellows, but through this project we hope to show that the integration of algae as an energy generator within a house is not only feasible, but that it opens up many exciting architectural possibilities for green living.”

The team won the award at the Building and Construction International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environments held in Holland this year. More information on the team, and the possibilities of symbiotic green living can be found at www.algaetecture.com.

By Georgina Lavender