Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Architectural Bio-Photo Reactors:
Harvesting Microalgae on the Surface
of Architecture
Rosa Cervera Sardá and Javier Gómez Pioz
Abstract This chapter presents innovative construction systems developed by the
authors, integrated into the surfaces of cities and architecture—facades, roofs and
pavements—giving them a supplement to traditional construction, aesthetic and
enclosure, for the production of bio-energy. These systems allow the movement of
fluids with microalgae, becoming Architectural Photo-Bioreactors that, by
absorbing sunlight and converting it through photosynthesis of microalgae, pro-
duce biomass, biogas, bio-fertilizers and other value-added products to the pair
that captures CO
2
. The grand innovation of the project is the combination of two
fields, constructive and biological, highly disruptive and uniquely for a sustainable
city in a holistic view of energy, for growing algae in architecture.
7.1 Introduction
7.1.1 Urban Consumption and Ecological Consciousness
The awareness that humanity is throwing away at a vertiginous speed the heritage
for which the Earth needed millions of years to accumulate is something really
new. During the recent times a barbarous attack against the environment has been
constant. However, all these consequences were welcome as the advanced society,
in exchange, reached degrees of comfort and welfare unknown until then. It is now
in the first decades of the twenty-first century when ecological attention extends to
all scales, making us conscious that the city is one of the big focuses of energy
consumption, of land use and one of the biggest sources of polluting emissions.
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