NationStates Jolt Archive

Running out of space in your country. Do you need to secure your food supply?
Please be patient this is my first storefront attempt.

Skyfarm

Height: 300 Meters
Width: Radius is 20 Meters, Width is 40 Meters
Stories: 40 Stories Aboveground, 6 Stories below ground level

Building Construction: Modular circular construction. Each story is a cylindrical section of uniform height.

Building Materials: Enzyme bonded concrete, recycled metals, fiber insulation, bioplastics and biomaterials and other plant based materials developed using green chemistry.

Windows: The windows are made of a specially coated power glass. Power glass is a clear glass that can convert sunlight to electricity at a conversion rate of 8%. The windows also repel water. The water is caught in catchments at the bases of the windows.

Energy: There is a solar dish on the roof capable of powering the heating/cooling and farm systems in the building. There is a pellet burning cogeneration heat/steam facility in the basement. This is run by powdering then compressing non-edible plant matter. It takes in leftovers from restaurants, excess plant matter from parks, roof gardens, and the vertical farm for processing. The cogeneration system uses a flue capture system to process any smog.

Farm Systems: The internal system is a bioshelter farm which houses aquaponics-- fish tanks for tilapia, hydroponics-- for growing different kinds of food, aeroponics-- for beans, strawberries, and other plants, small plot grains-- rice, wheat and corn, miniature fruit trees, mycology farms, and chicken coops. Because the food is grown indoors it is all organic with very few pesticides. A wide variety of foods is grown creating an indoor farm ecosystem. The system is designed to be very dense with trellises, stacking trays, and multiple layers of crops. In addition to food, a number of pharmaceutical herbs are grown.

Wastewater Treatment: The system includes a living machines blackwater treatement system. This can take sewage water and purify it so it can be used to water the plants.

There is an evapotranspiration system to recollect lost water, and collection stations to collect refuse to use in the pellet burning cogeneration system.

The lower levels include a refrigeration level and transportation to bring food to market.

Cost $200 Million.

Deep Farm

Depth: 80 Meters
Width: 80 Meters x 80 Meters
Floors: 10 Floors

Construction Materials: Enzyme Bonded Concrete, Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Recycled Steel, Bioplastics

Construction: These are simple square levels in which plants are grown. There is a quiet elevator systems between the different levels of the deep farm.

Energy: The system is underground so it does not need a huge amount of heating and cooling. The system uses a pellet burning cogeneration system, it processes non-edible plant material into pellets which are burned to create energy. It also uses an anaerobic digester to convert collected human and animal waste into manure and biogas.

Wastewater Treatment: The system uses a living machines system to purify blackwater so it can be used to water the plants in the farm.

Farm Systems: The internal system is a bioshelter farm which houses aquaponics-- fish tanks for tilapia, hydroponics-- for growing different kinds of food, aeroponics-- for beans, strawberries, and other plants, small plot grains-- rice, wheat and corn, miniature fruit trees, mycology farms, and chicken coops. Because the food is grown indoors it is all organic with very few pesticides. A wide variety of foods is grown creating an indoor farm ecosystem. The system is designed to be very dense with trellises, stacking trays, and multiple layers of crops. In addition to food, a number of pharmaceutical herbs are grown.

There is an evapotranspiration system to recollect lost water, and collection stations to collect refuse to use in the pellet burning cogeneration system.

The upper levels include a refrigeration and transportation area to bring food to market.

Cost: $200 Million

Ok-Farm Bureau would like to test your Deep farm system.

Deep Farm
Cost: $200 Million

Jackson Cornsilk
Bureau Chief
OK-Farm Bureau

OOC: Man, do you realize all the energy from the solar dishes and power glass will go to lighting up the farms, and it won't be even enough since you get only 8%? Why don't you put solar cells under spotlights to replace power plants?

Because plants do better with natural light. The majority of the power comes from the pellet burning cogeneration system which is a lot more effective than building giant solar mirrors. The power glass is enough to power the internal lighting and the solar dish on the roof should power the HVAC.

Hello Ok-la-ho-ma, we are more than glad to help you with the building of a deep farm. We are going to provide you with a few research notes. Thank you so much for doing business with us.

Regards,

Mimi Ohyes, Minister of Trade

OOC: This is a little bit on Living Machines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_machines

This is a bit on Vertical Farm Design:
http://verticalfarm.com/designs.php

would you like to advertise your storefront in the Solenial Herald? an internationally respected newspaper

We will gladly accept advertising for the Deep Farm/Skyfarm. We look forward to seeing it put into place.

Interwebz, part of the design of this thing is to deal with some types of waste, if you notice the blackwater systems that are piped in then processed through living machines so they can be used as water for the plants. Also notice that the pellet burning cogeneration comes from processing organic waste from restaurants, local parks, and the farm. It is not just about generating electricity. It is about building a complete process.

OOC: A lot of the ideas come from John Todd and Nancy Todd. I would love to get their newer book, A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise Of Ecological Design (Hardcover)
by Nancy Jack Todd. I am thinking about it. http://www.oceanarks.org/about/intro/#thework

How big is the place? If it is big enough, Ryan Getzlaf would like to have permits to rebuild the farm.

Vanek, we will gladly work with you on improving our existing models so they are more up to date with latest technology. We are open to criticism on building new deep farms, sky farms. Both of them are described at the beginning of the post, please feel free to give your input. Improvements in design are welcome.

Professor Phoenix Cruonisis, Ecotechnic Institute, Liberty Arcology

Or, I meant make it for a new purpose. How big is the property?

We would helop build a deep farm wherever you would want it built to your specifications. We have a number of them throughout the Commonalitarianism. We are a partially ecotechnic society.

OOC: Here is another article from New York Magazine that gives more detail for a sky farm.
http://nymag.com/news/features/30020/

how Big Is It?

Internet, Sythonia Province System Administrator

The Internets would like to have one Sky Farm built in Sythonia, province of Anagonia, for the currently constructed IT center.

However, we want our version to have clear glass so all sunlight is delivered directly, we think we'll find a better source of power than taking sunlight from the plants. Also, no solar dish is needed, make just a clear glass dome instead, so we can grow tropical plants in there. This should also make the farm cheaper, so how much would it save?


Unsigned,
Anonymous.

We would sell you the reduced price skyfarm for $175 million dollars.

Regards,

Mimi Ohyes, Minister of Trade

This is how big it is. Figure out the volume. It is a cylinder.
Skyfarm:
Height: 300 Meters
Width: Radius is 20 Meters, Width is 40 Meters
Stories: 40 Stories Aboveground, 6 Stories below ground level

Deep Farm:
Deep Farm

Depth: 80 Meters
Width: Square: 80 Meters x 80 Meters
Floors: 10 Floors

Internet, Sythonia Province System Administrator

Fair deal. Please proceed with the construction when possible. The bill will be paid from the integrated budget. After evaluating the performance, the system might be expanded or not, in accordance with system's efficiency and our needs.

Unsigned,
Anonymous.


[ OOC: Am I correct in the assumption that your isles are already fed largely by them? ]

We will begin construction of the sky farm immediately. We are more than happy to accomodate your needs.

Regards,

Mimi Ohyes, Minister of Trade.

OOC:We actually have an interesting mix of technology for feeding our population. We have floating aquaculture rafts-- fish, kelp, shrimp, shellfish, pearl culturing, vertical farms, deep farms, urban agriculture-- community gardens and roof gardens, as well as some floating greenhouses in river areas, in some areas we have drained swamps and built a modernized version of the chinampa, a canal aquaculture system with floating gardens, terraced hillside gardens for combined rice and fish agriculture. There are some fairly dense large tree farms as well. Really big trees don't fit inside a vertical farm system. Also in some of the sparser islands there are sheep farms. I would guess about 40% was vertical farms and deep farms. Diversifying the food supply is important. Also gardening, green space, and parks are part of the national pastime which fits in with a green mindset.

We are putting an optional upgrade into effect for the skyfarm. We have an improved flue capture system. Part of it uses algae to scrub the CO2 from the flue, the algae is then processed into biodiesel, turned into pellets for the burner, or animal feed.

We are also adding a strain of algae, Variant 3 to our blackwater living machine purification system, this will both improve the purification, and add a harvestable feedstock for biodiesel, or to make pellets if wanted. We would have to adjust the ecosystem for this if it is desired.

OOC: This is a neat little article on this. Flue capture.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-01-10-algae-powerplants_x.htm
Combined bioremediation and biodiesel from algae.
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=44928

We are putting an optional upgrade into effect for the skyfarm. We have an improved flue capture system. Part of it uses algae to scrub the CO2 from the flue, the algae is then processed into biodiesel, turned into pellets for the burner, or animal feed.

We are also adding a strain of algae, Variant 3 to our blackwater living machine purification system, this will both improve the purification, and add a harvestable feedstock for biodiesel, or to make pellets if wanted. We would have to adjust the ecosystem for this if it is desired.

OOC: This is a neat little article on this. Flue capture.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-01-10-algae-powerplants_x.htm
Combined bioremediation and biodiesel from algae.
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=44928

OK prides itself on its use of Biofuels.

We are intrested in working closer with you on this technology. we would like to expand an area in our nation to help research and implement these beneficial and responsible technologies. What else can we do to help?

Both the algae smokestack, and the algae sewerage ponds are part of a larger program called the Waste to Biofuel Program. It is both a remediative program for waste and a plan for energy generation.

The Waste to Biofuel Program consists of the following:

1) Algae sewage ponds.

2) Algae smokestack capture.

3) Waste grease reclamation from restaurants and food processing for biofuels.

4) Landfill gas reclamation mainly biogas using small turbines.

5) Animal and human waste to biodiesel. The most promising of these technologies is turkey and chicken droppings to biodiesel, and manure to methane and fertiflizer.

6) Brownfields to biodiesel. This involves using bioremediation on contaminated sites and then turning the plants into biodiesel. This consists of mainly sunflower and mustard seed. This is experimental, we have not determined how long before it is safe in bioremediation uptake before we can start using fuel from the cleansed lands.

7) For large cities we are looking at plasma arc furnaces with algae capture systems. These are 99.99% efficient, leaving two residues a glasslike material that can be used in coatings like asphalt and biogas.

The Sacriligiously Holy Sultanate of Deserted Territories would like to purchase 4 sky farms for the lush northern oasis and 6 deep farms for use in the expansive desert.

Two billion dollars will be allocated to build them.

We are interested in purchasing one of your deep farms. However, we do not need chicken coops, as all of the meat in our country is raised free-range. We are in need of a honey storage area. Also, how much food on average can be grown by such a farm? Our nation is small- 7 million people. We also want to encourage our people to keep up their private farming and beekeeping, as we believe that hard work and loving the land is important to our well-being. However, we are hoping to expand our interests shortly and begin building hotels so that people might take advantage of our lovely weather, the boating on beautiful Lake Audrey and local flower gardens; your farm, which would be owned by the government, would be able to provide food for those hotels as well as for our people at large, and for export.

We thank the Sacriligious Holy Sultanate of Deserted Territories for their purchase of 4 sky farms and 6 deep farms for $2 billion dollars.

Regards,

Mimi Ohyes, Minister of Trade.