BioFlow

BioFlow

For a healthy and nutritious future

The name of the task was "kitchenware". The aim was to design a kitchen appliance that either does not exist or to improve an existing one. The research phase began with a look into the future, during which three major themes emerged: Insects as an important source of animal protein, vertical farming for the industrial and space-saving cultivation of fruit and vegetables, and algae/microalgae as an important source of plant protein and nutrients. This led to the creation of Bioflow, a project designed to enable customers to grow various different types of microalgae for consumption.

The Planetary Health Diet

The Planetary Health Diet is designed to provide a balanced diet while remaining as environmentally conscious as possible.

Healthy diets have an optimal caloric intake and consist largely of a diversity of plant-based foods, low amounts of animal source foods, contain unsaturated rather than saturated fats, and limited amounts of refined grains, highly processed foods and added sugars.

The Diet inspired us to look for alternative sources of protein. That‘s how we came across microalgae.

“Many of us have known the potential of algae for food for years and have been working on it as a food source, but now, with climate change, deforestation, and a population of eight billion people, most everyone realizes that the world simply has to become more efficient in protein production”

— Dr. Stephen Mayfield (Professor of Molecular Biology)

The Idea

The idea was to enable private individuals to cultivate microalgae and thus significantly influence nutrition. The result is a sterile system that can grow different types of microalgae through an Ai control. A laboratory setup is used to achieve maximum efficiency in algae production. Mounted on the wall, our project provides a balanced diet and also illuminates the room.

Growing module

The photobioreactor is used to cultivate the algae. The algae suspension inside is kept in constant motion by a special mold and a C02 injection system to expose each microalgae to maximum light.
The separating funnel plays a decisive factor in the processing procedure. In the process of concentration, the microalgae suspension is fed into the funnel. A flocculant and a ring magnet separate the suspension into water and microalgae. A large part of the water is thus separated.
The cross-flow filtration is another step to extract the last remnants of water from the algae mass. The resulting biomass is passed to the algae output. Now the consumption or drying of the algae would be possible.

Algae cultivation made simple

The following video describes the process of microalgae cultivation. It starts with the filling of the photobioreactor, through the separating funnel, to cross-flow filtration. It ends with the transportation of the microalgae to the dispensing points.

Ai Control

Since any ordinary mortal has no idea how to cultivate microalgae under sterile conditions, the solution had to be an AI. Since countless factors such as light, air-water mixture, fertilizer supply and much more have to be continuously monitored and adjusted, it would be too much work for one person. With a user-friendly interface and the Ai Lilly, algae cultivation is made easy for everyone.