London: Otrivin Air Lab harvests carbon dioxide, purifies air, grow algae biomass and 3D print biodegradable products in a workshop space format
Air purification process by living photosynthetic microalgae
When it comes to finding an alternative to plastic there’s one factor—other than the problem of disposal— that isn’t often taken into consideration: the source. Instead of using fossil fuels as feedstock material for plastic production, London based company ecoLogicStudio is manufacturing biodegradable bio-polymers that are made with the byproduct of the air purification process, powered by living, photosynthetic microalgae.
This way, carbon dioxide is harvested as raw material and purified with the intent to 3D print biodegradable products. This discovery has made possible the conversion of polluted air into products that help protect human breathing.
Biomass
The most common compounds— such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide— are responsible for global warming, pollution, and intoxication of the lands. All of these chemical elements that are the cause of contamination for our respiratory system, are actually nutrients for the microalgae.
While feeding on these substances they remove them from the air molecules to build new selves and duplicate. After that, they are filtered out of the water, where they normally grow, to extract the biomass from which the biopolymer is extruded. Biomass can be used for food, medical purposes as well as the production of biopolymers.
ecoLogicStudio. Ethos and work
EcoLogicStudio has a very deep relationship with Academia. The name was inspired by a book, Gregory Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind. It looks at ecology as an interconnection or a multiple system that involves both our logical understanding and metalogical understanding on an anthropological level. In this sense, visual languages and all the languages are defined by matters on these analogies and become part of our ecological discourse, acquiring a relevancy in terms of climate change.
Turning air pollution into material
What to many may seem like an unbelievable process, ecoLogicStudio bio designers Pasquero and Poletto explain what it’s like to be turning air pollution into material: «We have been working with living organisms and living systems for several years now. These living systems have their own ability to process and digest substances that are dangerous for us. They feed on them. We work with local species of algae because they adapt better to microclimate. At the moment, we are working with a variety of green, blue and red algae. We have Spirulina, Chlorella, Porphyridium and Cyanidium. Some of the algae are also valuable to produce biomass for food. They are living organisms different from mechanical filters that remove pollutants from the air and store it somewhere in the form of dust or other organisms». These microorganisms have been around for billions of years and they evolved and developed very unique properties which the industry is already using in different ways.
Otrivin Air Lab: a bio factory placed in London city center
The collaboration with Otrivin started three years ago with the consumer healthcare branch of Glasgow meeting for Climate in 2021, and initially focused on public spaces for kids. To make them able to breathe better, re-metabolize some of the byproduct of the city present in the air and interact with other microalgae.
They had their first playground in Warsaw, a more ephemeral installation for COP26 in Glasgow and then one for COP27 in Cairo, where the air was transformed with a sensor embedder; they registered a reduction of the main pollutant between 75 percent and 95 percent each week.
PhotoSynthetica technology
The Air lab is indeed a factory but because it uses bio digital technologies, it can take place in a friendly open environment in the middle of the city. A factory that mass produces plastic bottles couldn’t stay in the same place. It would pollute, making that area inhabitable.
Through the application of the PhotoSynthetica technology, the Otrivin Air Lab tests the feasibility to build a circular production workflow, where carbon dioxide and urban air pollution are re-metabolized into fresh biomass. The main photosynthetic wall houses twelve, three-meter-tall photobioreactors, each filled with 10 liters of living photosynthetic microalgae. The wall will adsorb 240g of CO2 and release 180g of oxygen producing 84g of biomass daily.
The making of a biopolymer using 3D print technology
The biopolymers are essentially produced by mixing together the biomass with other substances, such as Agar Agar and Chitosan, which comes from the shell of marine organisms, placed in a warm pan, just like cooking. Then, the mixture is cooled to let it get the desired consistency. They, as a company, have already done much experimenting. «There’s not just one kind of filament. The highest percentage of algae that we have used is around 25 percent».
Getting different consistencies or properties similar to plastic, paper or leather
Depending on the percentages of algae, explained Poletto, the result can get different consistencies or properties similar to plastic, paper or leather. «We are not just substituting one material with another— we can generate a broad range of materials for different uses, and with 3D printing we can further improve the material properties. We use very fine layering and create geometries efficient in terms of the use of material because we need very little of it. The morphology that we can give with the 3D printing makes it nice to hold but it also gives it a lot of strength. If you look at the thickness of the material it’s so thin you can see the light through it. It’s just a fraction of a millimeter and it only weighs around 5g».
Biodegradability is only real if happens in natural environmental conditions
Normally, what is considered biodegradable standard material in the production of 3D printings— PLA or polylactic acid— requires additives of chemical origin to give stability and longevity. The use of these additives affects the product’s biodegradability rate in natural environmental conditions.
In ecoLogicStudio’s case, they’ve been working in cooperation with the University and material scientists to produce a base that doesn’t require any chemical additives, unlike the normal PLA. «If you compost or put our products in a box filled with worms, they’re gone in normal temperature conditions in about three weeks. The biodegradation would happen faster in a hotter environment. We are trying to look for solutions that make the products not only biodegradable but makes the process possible in natural conditions».
The cost of working with biopolymers
In many cases, chemical engineers working with biopolymers will always tell the story of how developing natural based technologies is expensive, much more than traditional polymers from fossil fuels. They will say they don’t last or won’t work as efficiently, that they are difficult to make as they carry lots of challenges, that they won’t work in the real world.
One of the main reasons this narrative is being carried on by manufacturers, explains Poletto, is because they are paid by the petrochemical industry to continue to promote the use of plastic while pretending to do something else, something more ‘sustainable’.
«If you take a plastic bottle and you look at the cost of production, the damage that it has done to the environment, the energy that it will take to erase all the negative externalities and the side effects, you will see that nature based technologies— even if they are just at the beginning— are already more efficient and cost effective than traditional biochemical products».
ecoLogicStudio: a zero-waste process
What ecoLogicStudio is proposing is not only a change of material, but a change of the production system that needs to be more embedded into the architecture and the public space, to involve a larger number of people, to be more decentralized. A zero-waste process that uses the material in its entirety and just the one that is needed, without the creation of molds or offcuts.
This considered, the discussion about costs changes completely: «these objects become more personal and gain a different value than the objects that we consume and dispose of daily. It’s a question of value and not a question of cost. If you consume a lot of very low-cost products without knowing how to dispose of them, you will have a much greater impact on the planet, which is detrimental. It’s about looking at the entire lifecycle of a product. Cheap products are only cheap because they cost little but their impact is huge. And if we want to understand their costs we need to factor this impact, otherwise we are never going to change the current paradigm that is destroying the planet and our health».
Moving forward: producing biomass from pellets
For their future projects, ecoLogicStudio founders will be working with pellets. It brings more possibilities for larger scale production and 3D printing. When the biomass is dried it needs to be very thin in order to extrude a filament, otherwise it can brittle or break; pellets won’t require that.
Using pellets would allow them to work with thicker pieces or even fragments of algae, making the whole process faster and easier. And it would take less energy too. The main goal is to keep experimenting with different types of biomasses, incorporating even the rougher types.
EcoLogicStudio
Architecture and design innovation firm specialized in biotechnology for the built environment. Co-founded in London in 2005 by Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto, the studio has built a unique portfolio of biophilic sculptures, living architectures and blue-green masterplans.
