Jim,
I meant oil that might be released from cells damaged by handling, or
contamination from machinery, or even the plasticizer from heated
tubing.
I got you, I'm not looking at oil producing algae with this raceway
exercise, what I'm researching is anaerobic methane from bio-mass and
that notion has brought me back to the requirements of growing
indigenous algae in a raceway strictly for its bio-mass, this idea has
been sparked by reading works by Jean Pain and John Fry.
You rarely see what the model predicts at first, especially with low-
cost instruments. Most of a research project can be figuring out why.
Point well taken, but I still want to get (at least) a cursory handle
on enough math with this notion to before I spent time experimenting
on the details, anaerobic methane works, a known fact for at least 100
years, the real question (with this or any alternative energy) is; can
be done in a way to produce a useful energy net gain?
Mine only records min and max. Dataq has a decent line of relatively
inexpensive loggers:
http://www.dataq.com/products/index.htm
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
I've rarely needed to log data unattended, most of the time I could
record all the variables on paper at intervals and graph the curves in
between. The slope and offset of a linear function only needs two
points and the ones that will be exponential are usually evident in
advance, the rate of change is proportional to the amount present.
Evaporation is proportional to constants -- surface area, air
velocity, temperature, humidity, so if you can hold them steady you
should only need two timed readings.
I'm reading a paper on this very concept.
Thanks for your time and help.
Curbie
