Production and application of an aircraft spreadable, cyanobacterial based biological soil crust inoculant for soil fertilization, soil stablization and atmospheric CO2 drawdown and sequestration

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for the production and application of a cyanobacteria based biological soil crust inoculant for soil fertilization, soil stabilization and the drawing down and sequestering of atmospheric carbon. Inoculant is generated as a dry granulate that can be stockpiled and spread onto soils using standard agricultural spreading practices employing aircraft, ground equipment and irrigation systems. This inoculant will have particular application in stabilizing agricultural and arid land soils to limit their erosion, increasing soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen and providing nutrients, and drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide by stimulating the growth and propagation of these biological soil crusts and their associated microorganisms and vascular plants. The effect of this carbon dioxide draw down will further the broad scale application of the soil crust inoculant by industries and nations interested in offsetting their anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions while increasing the fertility of their soils.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 61 / 422,613, filed Dec. 13, 2010, entitled “Production and Application of Cyanobacterial Based Photosynthetic Soil Fertilizer”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention is related to production and application of cyanobacterial based photosynthetic soil fertilizer.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to have a detrimental impact on global weather conditions. Accordingly, there is a need for additional systems and / or methods that assist in mitigating the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide, including the sequestering of industrial CO2 emissions. Additionally, there is a need for a natural soil fertilizer that mitigates desertification and revitalizes the soil micronutrients depleted by chemical farming.[0004]Soil microorganisms within BSC form...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]In the general invention, a biological culture of natural soil microorganisms is drawn from the top centimeter or so of healthy undisturbed soil found in un-shaded areas, as taught by Flynn. Blue-green algae and the soil consortia are cultured into an inoculant within one or more photobioreactors (PBRs), as part of a PBR system. CO2 is optionally coupled into the closed PBR system through a storage buffer located above ground or within subterranean pore space in order to leverage sequestering incentives and to cope with variable rates of CO2 industrial emissions and culture uptake. The combined soil microorganisms are harvested and compounded using an integrated water extraction and compounding system, described further below. Admixes (additives) and coatings are added to create a wide variety of deliverable soil microorganisms products that can be spread upon targeted farmlands or damaged land using standard agricultural practices, such as crop dusting, mixing with irrigation water or applying with spreading machines. Particle shaping processes create final forms and densities to suit the needs of the final product. As microorganisms grow and propagate in and on the soil, their uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere increases proportionate with the population size, impinging sunlight, water availability, soil type and the occurrence of secondary vascular plant growth that might further increase the net primary productivity of the soil.

[0053]Accordingly, in FIG. 6 the CO2 is input into the system and may be compressed further to enable geologic storage. Since the algal farm needs only enough pressure to distribute CO2 around the farm, then the pipeline pressures could be reduced for farm use through an expansion turbine and the energy recovered as electricity net metered onto the power grid. The low pressure gas would be stored in low pressure inflatable structure that either stand alone or are part of each PBR. In these structures would be a loose separation diaphragm. On one side, a pressure controlled system consisting of a compressor and a pressure sensor inflates the structure to a nominal pressure as required to resist local wind and snow load and comply with local building regulations. On the other side of the diaphragm, CO2 could be pumped into the dual-chamber inflated structure at a constant pressure since the air pressurized side would release air to maintain the overall structure's pressure. Through this scheme, an algal farm can be sized to handle the average yearly influx of CO2 from industry without worrying about stretches of bad weather or even winter-summer sun exposure variability.

Problems solved by technology

Build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to have a detrimental impact on global weather conditions.

However, because BSC microorganisms reproduce slowly in dry climates and are not very motile, physical disturbances like tilling, livestock grazing, and fire can halt the BSCs beneficial effects for the soil and the BSC, and these benefits can take decades or centuries in dry climates to naturally restore.

Of the planet's 13 billion hectares of land mass, about 1 billion hectares of BSC supported soil have been damaged by human activity that has led to increased global desertification and airborne dust that exacerbates the effects of global warming.

Once BSC activity declines, the vascular plants dependent on healthy soil decline, further reducing the ability of the land to produce crops, prevent erosion, and draw down CO2 from the atmosphere.

Additionally, the use of factory fertilizers based on the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process for fixing agricultural nitrogen increase levels of atmospheric CO2, pollute waterways with excess nitrogen run off, and deplete soil health and micronutrients.

Flynn reports that certain methods of particle reduction, such as grinding, can cause cell damage that results in a lower rate of recovery for the dried inoculant, once exposed to sun and water.

Pelletizing the inoculant via extrusion enhances survivability, but may not be the ideal aerodynamic size and shape for wide- spread dissemination, such as by aircraft crop dusting.

Because the carrier will eventually be dissolved in water prior to application, it may not have the homogeneity that a compounded mixture destined for dry dissemination would need.

The use of conventional PBR methods of culturing soil microorganisms in closed tanks results in a slow growth rate due to, among other reasons, sunlight penetrating the growth media by only centimeters, this growth rate being insufficient for large scale is production.

There is currently no known coupling of an industrial source to a PBR culturing system that accounts for variations in industrial output.

Also, the financial and technical challenges of any new technology requires leveraging any and all available synergies and options.

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