Fermentor

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• Article Title: Fermentor

Main > Food and Agriculture

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Controlled-environment growing is the successful marriage of technology with plant biology. By using greenhouses to control heat and air conditions, using artificial lighting to control light levels, using nutrient solutions to control the nutrition plants receive through their roots, and otherwise tweaking the environment that we grow plants in, it is possible to grow more plants in less space than would otherwise be possible. For example, The Institute of Simplified Hydroponics report that in just 20m² (215 square feet) of space, they regularly grow 2kg (4.4lb) of vegetables per day.

This kind of growing has many benefits over farming -

• Losses to pests are dramatically reduced without the need for pesticide
• It can be automated
• It uses very little water (this is also true of permaculture)
• Plants grow very big very fast. This saves a lot of space. Where space is limited, as in a city, it is the only real option for self-sufficiency.
• It requires very little energy and no heavy machinery
• It can grow plants all year round. There can be multiple harvests in a year, instead of just one.

Controlled-environment growing covers the three "ponics": hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics.

Open Source Ecology promotes agricultural practices that meet the OSE Specifications i.e. food systems that are open-source, replicable, cheap, scalable, simple to build and maintain, allow automation, promote decentralization, are environmentally-friendly and lead to abundance. Industrial monoculture using petrochemicals and heavy machinery do not meet these criteria, but two methods of agriculture do: permaculture and controlled-environment growing. These two have different strengths and weaknesses; although controlled-environment growing allows apartment-dwellers to be self-sufficient for food, it cannot heal bad soils. And although permaculture can turn a wasteland into a beautiful forest, it cannot grow oranges in Austria. A fermentor or fermentation chamber is a type of bioreactor for containing and controlling fermenter microorganisms. Fermentation is an important economical route to important raw materials (ethanol, lactic acid) and fermented foods. A fermenter must control temperature and keep the chamber anaerobic and free of oxygen to optimize conditions for desired microbial fermentation. Fermentation is a basic and highly developed art and also pursued by hobbyists. Necessary public information is available to create an economical and high performance OSE version to complete certain product ecologies.

Prototype 1

The fermentor should be designed to control the conditions necessary to raise any nonphototrophic microorgansism (see Photobioreactor). An initial prototype should be built to control the conditions for lactic acid and ethanol fermenters. Anaerobic and aseptic conditions must be maintained by being sealed to the outside. Initial designs will be for batch production but allow for configuration for continuous runs with proper attachments. Gas hookups will allow gas exchange with the atmosphere or injection of gas hookups. Top or side ports would allow the removal of broth and addition of substrates. The fermentor should be built in a conical shape to allow easy draining and the settling of particulate matter, an agitator should be located above the bottom port.

Advanced features

1. Configurable to allow different component hookup such as aeration, dialysis and inputs allowing continuous run 2. pH measurement with automatic base addition 3. Sensors for temperature, dissolved oxygen, nutrient density and cell density. 4. Growth programs

OSE fermentor specifications

• Ability to maintain anaerobic conditions, while removing product and adding substrate
• Internal dimensions
  • Internal volume
• Conical shape with outlet port at lowest point
• Material - Nonreactive stainless steel

Design rationale