A service station in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Belgrano will have the first installation of a liquid tree that environmental specialists affirmed that they constitute an alternative to purify the air in large cities because they act as photobioreactors or installations for massive cultivation of algae that produce oxygen and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The original project, called Liquid 3, was designed by the Multidisciplinary Research Institute of the University of Belgrade, in Serbia, and it is based on a concept of alternative sustainability for urban environments that have limited or reduced space or that represent a high source of pollution, where planting trees is unfeasible, specialists explained.
The YPF company joined this initiative by installing this type of “liquid tree” at the service station located on Figueroa Alcorta y Juramento avenuewhere there is a microalgae module that “feeds on CO2 and air to grow, purifying the environment.”
Each “liquid tree” equals 20 saplings
Each unit of liquid tree “is equivalent to approximately 20 young forest trees in its ability to purify the air”was stated from the device called Y-Algae, produced in conjunction with the company Y-TEC and Inbiotec-Conicet.
Part of the module is renewed periodically and the microalgae used in it, after a useful life time, serve to fertilize the land.
“A pump continuously injects air from the environment (with high levels of CO2) and circulates the water so that the algae, through photosynthesis, absorb CO2 and release oxygen, just like other photosynthetic organisms such as trees.”
Priscilla Minotti, professor and researcher at the School of Habitat and Sustainability at the University of San Martín (Unsam).
“Photobioreactors are facilities for the massive cultivation of algae for different uses,” Priscilla Minotti, a professor and researcher at the School of Habitat and Sustainability at the University of San Martín (Unsam), told Télam. The specialist explained that this system is a large water reservoir with transparent walls and unicellular freshwater green algae.
“A pump continuously injects air from the environment (with high CO2 levels) and circulates the water so that the algae, through photosynthesis, absorb CO2 and release oxygen, just like other photosynthetic organisms such as trees,” he added.
This biotechnological solution “replaces” a tree or two hundred square meters of grass, as specified by its Serbian creators on its website, and indicated that its main benefits are environmental, since it uses an alternative concept of sustainable greening; economic, due to its intelligent use of public space; and social, because it generates “greater awareness about environmental protection”.
Benefits of microalgae
«The benefits of microalgae are many. They have the ability to divide and grow when in the right conditions, and they are capable of photosynthesizing. In other words, they use CO2, they fix it to generate biomass and in the process of photosynthesis they release oxygen,” María Mar Areco, a Conicet researcher and Unsam professor, explained to this agency.
A liquid tree at the YPF station in Alcorta and Juramento, Buenos Aires.
Regarding the effectiveness to “replace” the planting of trees in cities with high levels of pollution or “lack of space”, the specialist pointed out that, Although these devices work, the systemic benefits that trees have in any environment, and especially in cities, are greater than that of producing oxygen and “partially remediating the air.”
Maintaining the city’s own ecosystem, the shade, the ability to regulate thermal variability and its “roof” function, where the existing particulate pollutant in the air is retained in the leaves, were some of the examples cited by Areco as benefits of natural woodlands.
The Serbian “liquid tree” has a rectangular structure, a solar panel, a night light, a “fish tank” type pond where microalgae are found, USB charging point, and a seat with capacity for three to four people.
Some questions
Regarding the structure of these trees, Minotti warned that in their design there are materials whose production is not sustainable, such as flat glass, steel and solar panels.
Areco also warned that Microalgae grow, so old or dead biomass must be removed and renewed continuously.
«You have to renew the culture media all the time. Bioreactors become dirty and microalgae cultures become contaminated. Although the project seems very interesting to me, I would apply it -for example- in other urban environments such as on the roofs of business buildings », he emphasized.
Enrique Puliafito, Conicet researcher and professor at the UTN Mendoza Regional Faculty, explained to Télam that In urban areas, the most common strategy to combat CO2 emissions is “increasing green in parks and through plants on walls and terraces of buildings.”
In the case of these liquid trees, the ponds must be emptied from time to time, and the water with microalgae must be replaced by another, so adapting this system to cities will also depend on its proper maintenance.
By Giuliana Biasotto (Télam)