1. Fishes production
The first piece of water will surround the 2 Mandala gardens in order to provide La Evidencia with ecosystem services in the explanatory text of the Mandala gardens here. In addition, the water pond will allow herbivorous fish such as Tilapia to be farmed. Herbivorous fish will feed on natural aquatic plants in addition to the cultivated plant Azolla. Azolla is a water fern that has many advantages:
1. It has a high yield, in fact, its biomass doubles in 3 to 10 days depending on the conditions. 2. Living in symbiosis with atmospheric nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, it is a super-food rich in nitrogen and amino acids. Animal feces fed with Azolla have a high fertilizing capacity. It adds atmospheric nitrogen to the nutrient cycle of the agroecosystem, as do terrestrial plants of the Fabaceae family, see the article on soil micro-organisms and their symbiosis with plants here. 3. It is not invasive in Central and South America. 4. Prevents insect larvae, such as mosquitoes, from developing on the surface of the water by preventing them from reaching the surface to breathe.
In addition to feeding the herbivorous fish and ducks in the ponf, a portion of Azolla production will be harvested and fed to the animals in the food forest. In this way, the nitrogen fixed by the Azolla will be recycled and fertilize the soil of the food forest where biochar in soil will absorb and store it in order to limit leaching losses [If you want to know more about biochar, read the very first article I published entitled “Bamboo and Biochar” by clicking here].
Thanks to the cultivation of Azolla the integrated system of highly productive production Rice-Azolla-Fish-Duck could be set up if rice production becomes a necessity in La Evidencia.
Knowing that the only food we would give to fish and ducks will be the larvae of Black Solder Fly (BSF) from food waste composting [To learn more about BSF larvae, read the article «Terra Preta pour fertiliser le sol» by clicking here]. The Chicken and Duck Shelter will be placed on top of the Primary Mix composting bin so that chicken and duck droppings fall directly from the screened floor. Thus pupaes of BSF, while migrating for their metamorphoses will go, by itselves, in the pond where they will be eaten by ducks and fish.
2. Bio-carburant production
A second piece of water will be placed as ideally as possible in a very sunny location to produce bio-fuel with micro-algae. This is because I believe that producing fuel remains the best option to move around while disturbing as little as possible our environment . Until now, alternatives to petrol-consuming engines are not yet ideal. With respect to electric motors, some of the materials needed to build electricity storage batteries are extracted from mines often found under tropical forests in emerging countries, This leads to deforestation of large areas, pollution of the region’s waters and the enslavement of local people, often children. The ideal solution for our travels would be to have the possibility to use normal thermal engines that pollute the least at production and,in the same time, not burning fossil fuels to drive due to the emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide, CO2) leading to global warming.
It is important to leave long-term carbon storage underground if we want to prevent global warming. It is even crucial to store the carbon in the soil, in La Evidencia , we will store a maximum of carbon in soil [If you want to know more about how to store carbon in our soils, read the very first article I published entitled “Bamboo and Biochar” by clicking here]. Under these conditions, at La Evidencia, we decided to use biodiesel (scientifically called methyl ester, CH3(CH2)XCOOCH3) from micro-algae to power our thermal engines.
Methyl Ester
Micro-algal biodiesel appears to be the only renewable biofuel that can completely replace petroleum-derived transport fuels without affecting the food supply or other crop products. Most productive oilseed crops, such as palm oil or rapeseed, do not yield as much as micro-algae to sustainably supply the necessary quantities of biodiesel. Similarly, bioethanol from sugar cane cannot compete with micro-algal biodiesel. We believe that biodiesel from micro-algae is the energy of the future thanks to the following benefits: 1. Unlike terrestrial plants, which store their energy as carbonates (sugars), micro-algae produce hydrocarbons and lipids. The transformation of lipids into biodiesel does not require energy. Thus, the production and burning of fuel oil produced by micro-algae is CO2-neutral (all the CO2 emitted while driven was fixed during photosynthesis).
2. Being unicellular, micro-algae grow very fast and the percentage of photosynthetic surface together with the positioning relative to the sun are optimized. 3. Micro-algae thrive in watersheds where only the sun’s location matters (e.g., a building’s vertical wall can be a support). Micro-alga farming therefore has the potential to not remove arable land from agriculture. 4. Since the CO2 concentration may be higher in water than in air, the photosynthesis rate may be higher for algae in water than for terrestrial plants in open air. Thus, CO2 from human activities could be recovered and dissolved in water in order to boost the photosynthesis of algae. 5. Micro-algae use nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, N and phosphate, P) in water for their metabolism. It turns out that the majority of what human activities release into wastewater are N and P. So micro-algae have the potential to clean up our wastewater, which currently, without recycling, cause eutrophication of lakes and oceans. 6. Once the algae has extracted its oil, it can be used as soil fertilizer and/or, depending on the strain, as animal feed. So micro-algae have the potential to hold a very important place in the cycles of many of the elements on which ecosystem productivity is based. This is exactly what La Evidencia wants to develop. In order to do this, we will place a water tank containing algae that we will regularly harvest to extract the lipids from the cells chemically (with alcohol) or physically (with an electric field). Then the lipids must undergo a simple trans-esterification with alcohol (methanol or ethanol) in order to produce methyl ester (biodiesel) and glycerol. This reaction does not require any energy input, just the presence of a catalyst in order to accelerate the trans-esterification reaction which is shown below:
Several strains of micro-algae are compatible for this practice, but testing is necessary to find which strain has the best yield depending on the biotic and abiotic conditions of the production location. Although autotrophic (producing its own energy through light energy); micro-algae have nutrient requirements equivalent to terrestrial plants. For an optimal yield of micro-algae, these nutrients must be diluted in water, this will be ensured by the addition of human urine that will be harvested in the urinals and divided toilets of La Evidencia.
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