Where Do We Begin…?

My adventure into my latest project had a very humble beginning.  I wanted to create a biological filter that would use the waste of the fish to grow plants and clean the water for my fish. I also wanted this in a greenhouse environment so I could protect the fish and enjoy them year round.  Then I though why not use this to grow vegetables instead of just greenery?  So I dug a huge hole for the pond and started to put up a large greenhouse over it.  Then I wondered how will I be able to afford to heat it?  What will the cost of the glazing for the greenhouse be? What happens if I lose power?  How will I aerate the water with no power?

Then I thought, “Maybe someone else has done something like this…”  So I began my search on the internet.  It wasnt long until I stumbled upon Aquaponics.  Growing vegetables and raising fish in a system that is a symbiotic cycle.  Basically what I was going to do but now I had 30 plus years of R&D already done for me!  As I continued to study though, I found it was most popular in warmer regions: Hawaii, Florida, Australia, basically everywhere that has a great deal of sun and warm temperatures year round.

Heating a greenhouse I found is relatively expensive through conventional means: gas, electricity, propane, oil, are all very expensive fuels for a structure that by nature isn’t very well insulated. Greenhouses are a necessity in our climate if you want to keep the fish productive and the plants growing.  I thought about wood heat, but it is difficult to use wood heat if you are not around all the time to keep the fire going.  Then I thought about wood pellets, cheaper than the other fuels but on the rise in cost too.  So began my research on the most plentiful and renewable fuel we have here, Biomass.  Weeds, grass clippings, tree trimmings, paper products, any vegetation when dry is combustible.  These when dry, shredded, and compressed into pellets, are nearly as good as wood pellets and cost far less.  I found a hammer mill, and pellet mill, then I wondered why does it take two fuels to do the job?  The pellet stove needs electricity to run. It should be able to generate its own power somehow, I thought.  So I looked at the Sterling engine for a long time, trying to find an example that really was practical and eventually gave up.  The technology just isn’t there for the small-scale user.  It is practical in space and on a huge industrial scale but not apparently for the home or single consumer.

Steam power I found out is a primary mover. In other words it is a major and cost-effective way to run machinery.  Steam is water that is expanded by heat over 1000 times.  That means a lot of pressure. That pressure when released in a controlled fashion will turn a turbine like those in a huge ship, or in one of our electric plants that provides most of the power in the US.  So I started looking for a way I could use steam.  It has been largely forgotten about on the small-scale. There are a few people who keep old steam engines for a conversation piece and display them at the county fair, and also a few steamers out there that have little steam boats for pleasure and tinkering. But as a working piece of equipment they are basically forgotten.  I stumbled upon a fellow in India that builds steam engines exactly like what I needed.  After several months of negotiating and convincing myself he was legitimate, I purchased one of his engines and embarked on my importing adventure.  We now have our engine and are trying to find the right boiler design.  Soon we will have our steam power for electrical generation and machinery operation.

We have recently set that part of the project aside for a more moderate goal. Pellet fired furnace / water heater is now the object of our efforts.  We have a working proto-type and are in the initial stages of design for a production model.  This I feel will be more appealing to the average homeowner on a budget but concerned with the operating costs of a greenhouse.

We are now expanding our research and development to other areas of study.  Sustainable fish feed through the cultivation of duckweed, more energy-efficient greenhouse design, using recycled glazing, hybrid growing systems, and so on.

We are now about a year into our project.  We have had the support of several generous and forward thinking people.  To these people we will forever be grateful.  It is an immense project with amazing potential.  We are very excited with the results we have had so far and look forward to what is soon to come.  We are also looking for intelligent, motivated people who would like to get involved and make this happen for the benefit of our local communities and eventually other areas.