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Hello,

i hope that is the right place for my question so here i go:

"is it possible to grow Botryococcus braunii (Bb) in the dark"?

*i know it sounds weird knowing that the algae needs light for the photesynthesis but maybe someone knows something

many thanks

stonewort:

   "is it possible to grow Botryococcus braunii (Bb) in the dark"?  

Short answer = No.

Long answer = No because the key to algae is that they fix solar energy into a usable form of energy, this is why algae are called an autotrophs. So without the sun... that solar energy fixing cannot happen.

That is what i know too, but still a friend of mine told me that he heard something about some heterotrophic Botryococcus braunii, some kind of genetic engineering.

Energy's gotta come from somewhere, ya? Heterotrophs dont make energy, they convert energy at a very large cost to the efficiency of the system. Anaerobic digesters and ethanol bugs are both heterotrophs, by the way, and the above applies to them as well.

Its like in politics...dont listen to what they're mouths are saying, just follow the money. In the case of energy production, dont listen to what people say, follow the thermodynamics.

i'll go on with this quest and i hope to return with something real..if not i'm going to kick my friend for sending me ghost hunting..

By the way Stonewort, welcome to the forum. And I a personal note, Im a big fan of lower flora, liverworts/stoneworts are always a sight for sore eyes! I used to have a collection of liverworts in the day.

Good luck with your quest. You will find Gobs of info about the subject @ BDN. Dig in...