Liquid Farm

Pipes everywhere on the liquid farm.

Not a “farm for liquids” but a concept in which bulk products are transported all over the farm in liquid or gaseous form, moved either by electric pumps or by a gravity differential. This may require quite an elaborate system of pipelines but once this infrastructure is set up, it can save labor, time, energy and costs. It provides extra security and independence. It can make use of otherwise stranded solar, wind and biomass energy. Liquids are easy to measure and monitor.

Transported liquids and gases

• freshwater, hot water, greywater
• liquid manure (from cows, pigs)
• wastewater from fish farming (to grow duckweed, azolla and cattails
• compost leachate, silage leachate
• slurry from biogas production
• steam, superheated steam
• Compressed Air
• CO2-rich air (from compost, used for CO2 enrichment/fertilization)
• biogas, methane, pyrolysis gas (“wood gas”)
• pyrolysis oil

Needed Technologies

• Pipes: polyethylene, terracotta, steel pipes, copper pipes (for wood gas), cement/lime+fabric composite
• Electric motors (for pumps and fans), wind-driven pumps
• ferrocement for bulk storage of liquids
• useful: Solar Sludge Drying system

Examples

• liquid manure => duckweed => cattails => irrigation or (bio-)filter and return to cycle
• aquaponics (e.g. fish culture then duckweed/azolla)
• compressed air => aerate compost => capure CO2-rich, hot off-gas => greenhouse
• methane => synfood

Liquid Farm Design Principles

• 1.) spatial and material efficiency: minimize distances, co-locate production and use of a resource; also minimize needed infrastructure (e.g. use same pool for tilapia and duckweed but with barrier in-between)
• 2.) resource efficiency: try to minimize resource losses (e.g. heat losses, nitrogen losses, water losses, etc.),
• 3.) expandability: keep options open for future expansion
• 4.) resilience: have buffers, storage (e.g. cisterns), backup mechanisms (e.g. use muscle-powered pump if solar fails)
• 5.) interconnectedness: the more connections between sub-systems, the more flexibility, resilience, responsiveness to market demands
• 6.) easy accessibility: for monitoring, for potential repairs to pipes; have ability to tap into resources at every step (for sale)
• 7.) flexibility: multi-use of the infrastructure (e.g. drain azolla pool and then plant wheat or corn in the mud)
• 8.) data richness: monitor all resource flows, use predictions to channel flows in order to maximize benefits
• 9.) microbial monitoring, heavy metal monitoring; capability to sterilize liquids if needed; bioconversion towards "wanted" (i.e. beneficial) microbes