CA3024256A1

CA3024256A1 - Submerged biorefinery chamber for large scale tailngs ponds

Info

Publication number: CA3024256A1
Application number: CA3024256A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Soheyl Mottahedeh; Kevin Wilson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2018-11-15
Filing date: 2018-11-15
Publication date: 2020-05-15

Abstract

A biorefinery chamber combines a submerged algal photobioreactor to a submerged methane gas collector for the bioremediation of large scale shallow waters such as from mine tailings or for the restoration of an ecosystem. The self-erecting system uses gravity and buoyancy forces to erect itself in order to envelop in situ a volume of wastewater within a larger body of wastewater. An embodiment of the invention includes a multilayered biorefinery chamber that treats multiple layers of wastewater from different depths, simultaneously and cooperatively.

Description

SUBMERGED BIOREFINERY CHAMBER
FOR LARGE SCALE TAILNGS PONDS
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a submerged in situ algal photobioreactor that doubles as a submerged greenhouse gas collector (collectively referred to as biorefinery chamber) for treatment of shallow waters such as from mine tailings. More particularly, the invention relates to a customized film that uses gravity and buoyancy forces to erect itself in order to envelop in situ a smaller volume of wastewater within a larger body of wastewater for creating the biorefinery chamber of the invention. An embodiment of the invention includes a multilayered biorefinery chamber that treats multiple layers of wastewater of different depths, simultaneously and cooperatively.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The convergence of global warming, global environmental problems, energy crisis and rapid increase of world population in need of food and shelter is becoming alarming. Attention is increasingly turning to alternative, more sustainable algal bioreactors and bio-refineries to produce food and feed, nutraceuticals, fertilizers and biofuels.
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a biorefinery is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, and chemicals from biomass. The biorefinery concept is analogous to today's petroleum refineries, which produce multiple fuels and products from petroleum.

The online website biorrefineria.blogspot.com suggests that a biorefinery is a concept, a process, a plant or even a cluster of facilities that convert biomass into several product streams and the integration of various technologies and processes in the most sustainable way. As part of this definition, an algal biorefinery is a biomass processing system based on algae, a feedstock characterised by its high productivity and high content of valuable components (lipids, proteins, polysaccharides and other specific biomolecules).
Algal cultivation can also be combined with carbon dioxide fixation systems while treating waste water, liquid waste, ponds, lakes, rivers, tailings dams, settling basins, ocean shores, oil spills, refuse, leachates, mine tailings, oil and gas tailings, tailings impoundments, paste tailings, riverine tailings and submarine tailings; all referred here as toxic wastewater.
Actapress.com reported that staggering volumes of tailings produced during bitumen extraction from oil sands ores are stored in settling basins/tailings ponds.
The current inventory of tailings in northern Alberta, Canada exceeds 850 million m3. Biogenic methane emissions have been observed from the surfaces of tailings ponds and about 40 million L
of methane day-1 was estimated from a single tailings pond (Mildred Lake Settling Basin) in 1999.
Fugitive methane emissions from oil sands mining activities are a potentially important source of greenhouse gas emissions. Field experiments performed by Matthew R.
Johnson and his team revealed notable quantities of residual methane (mean of 23.8 mgCH4/kg-core-sample (+41%/-35%) or 779 mgCH4/kg-bitumen (+69%/-34%) at 95% confidence) measured in the collected core samples. If these factors are applied to the volumes of bitumen mined in Alberta in 2015, they imply fugitive methane emissions equivalent to 2.1 MtCO.SUB.2e (as correlated with bitumen content) or 1.4 MtCO.SUB.2e (as correlated with total mined material) evaluated on a 100-year time horizon.

2 A company, Titanium Corporation reports that it has developed a technology for reducing significantly environmental impacts of oil sands tailings by removing bitumen and solvent from froth treatment tailings and by creating the opportunity to directly recycle and conserve water. They also report that their technology can apply to only 10% of oil sands tailings ponds.
Reports indicate that technology comes with very high capital costs, is technically very complex and demands building of unique infrastructures.
A number of patents of prior art refer to boring equipment, pumps and pipings that extract, treat or tap gases from an underwater source. As an example, U.S.
pat. 9,732,671 from Harper, jr.; Charles 1. teaches a method for treating dense deepwater that have dissolved gasses .. from lake Kivu. This method of collection and degassing of methane gas is capital intensive and applies to particularly and not common dense deepwater. In this method, collection of the methane gas occurs from few single extraction points.
Except for few deep lakes where methanotrophic algae remain concentrated under a dense deepwater strata, methanogenic bacteria growing in shallow tailings waters tend to spread across the entire volume and grow at all levels of a tailings pond.
Consequently, methane may exhausts anywhere across the entire surface of a settling basin or a tailings pond.
Given the size and scale of existing orphan and active toxic tailings and the generally harsh weather conditions where mines are often located, bioremediation of such sites is often neglected or abandoned.
From the foregoing, no system was taught in prior art that singly or collectively teaches a large scale methane gas collector, a photobioreactor and/or an algal biorefinery chamber suitable to treat high-volume of toxic wastewater and convert them into usable biochemical products; as

3 using traditional bioreactor systems would be cost prohibitive; also bioreactors suffer from the general inaptitude of operating under harsh environmental conditions such as snow or ice; their inherent scalability is limited; they often require high energy input and are capital intensive.
Traditional photobioreactors are not suitable for large scale bioremediation of toxic wastewaters.
It would be highly desirable to have a combination photobioreactor-biorefinery chamber-gas collector device available with workable limit to its scalability, easy to deploy, weather resistant, able to self-energize, able to facilitate product growth and harvesting, and able to treat selectively and controllably a volume portion within a larger volume of the same wastewater.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a submerged bioremediation chamber that triples as a gas collector chamber and as a photobioreactor, and have the combination being self-erecting and using a flexible customized film that envelops and separates a controlled volume of toxic wastewater from a larger volume of water that surrounds it and that treats the controlled volume separately.
It is another object of this invention to provide a chamber that uses natural buoyancy and gravity forces applied to a flexible customized film to help the chamber to stand erect by itself, eliminating the need for structural supports, and thus removing size limitations that restrict scalability of large size biorefinery chambers.
It is another object of this invention to provide a submerged chamber which top roof remains at water level for collecting and displacing gases from water enveloped by the chamber towards an external facility for further processing.

4 It is another object of this invention to provide a submerged chamber which body of wastewater enveloped by the chamber cooperates fluidingly via hoses with external pump means in order to receive inputs such as gases, inoculum and medium or to deliver outputs such as samples or metabolites.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a biorefinery chamber that becomes free from the negative environmental impact of weather on the chamber, such as cold, heat, snow, ice, rain, winds, heat or excess UV light; said freedom from weather variation being gained by submerging said chamber under water.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a biorefinery chamber that bio-processes tailings water in-pond, portion-by-portion, and in situ where tailings are located, thus eliminating transport and the consequent handling cost of dealing with massive volumes of toxic liquids, saving energy resources and equipment costs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a biorefinery chamber connected to the exhaust of a biogas electrical generator that reduces the carbon footprint of collected methane greenhouse gases by twenty one times and converts them into C.O.SUB2 which is injected into the chamber to elevate temperature of the wastewater, to reduce pH levels and to enhance biological growth.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a biorefinery chamber that is self-energizing using sunlight to power the natural, passive, photosynthetic process to metabolize toxic wastewater into usable biochemical products.

5 Another object of the present invention is to provide a biorefinery chamber that uses energy collected from methane gases from a body of bioactive wastewater to generate light, heat or electrical power to run pumps or to produce products of economic value.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a multilayered biorefinery chamber wherein liquids from separate depth layers are treated separately and cooperatively.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a chamber adapted with a self-defense ability against biofilm formation, using the methane generated in the chamber to agitate water adjacent to chamber walls inner side.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a cluster of biorefinery chambers, each processing separately toxic wastewater; said chambers being controllably fed by a similar or a dissimilar inoculum and medium input so as to convert biomass into several product streams and provide in real time data on the growth of bioactive microorganisms to enhance the biorefinery process.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description and drawings which follow, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify

6 key features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The invention can be used, in combination or separately, to collect underwater methane gas, to act as a submerged photobioreactor and to act as a submerged biorefinery chamber for growing single-celled micro-organisms and other small multi-cellular organisms capable of treating tailings wastewater in order to generate useful metabolites.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying figures incorporated in and forming a part of the specification, illustrate several aspects of the present invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
FIG. 1 is a cross section of one embodiment of the invention showing the general arc-shaped configuration that a submerged biorefinery chamber.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a cluster of modular submerged biorefinery chambers, illustrating their optional position in relation to an oil sand tailings pond.
FIG. 3 is a cross section of one embodiment of the invention showing the flat shape configuration of the customized film of the invention and its borders held by temporary buoys before they are released to free the film weighted border to sink.
FIG. 4 is a detail view A-A of FIG. 3 showing a set of cooperating rings linked together by a cable that when disengaged from said rings releases buoys needed before chamber self-erection occurrence under water.
FIG. 5 is a cross section of a multilayered biorefinery chamber.

7 FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the multilayered chamber of FIG. 5 FIG. 7 is a detail view B-B of FIG. 6 showing how bubbles come out of small apertures located at all floor horizontal borders and agitate microorganisms to reduce biofilm formation.
FIG. 8 is a detail view C-C of FIG. 1 showing how hems at film borders function as sparger tubes that create bubbles to reduce biofilm formation.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the layout of the film, from a rolled stage to a deployed arc-shaped stage.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the principle that submerging a floatable large size plastic film of lower density than water into a body of liquid such as tailings water and providing that film with an arrangement of weight means affixed along its borders causes the film borders to sink in a configuration that creates an arc-shape configuration which defines a bottomless chamber suitable to capture gases escaping from the body of bioactive liquid located just below the chamber arc-shape catchment area.
A set of flexible conduits are affixed to a set of degassing hoods held above water, each by a buoy, with said hoods being attached to the film for displacing the collected gases from the chamber to an outside facility for further processing.
By providing the chamber with a light permeable film that facilitates natural light penetration, and other inputs such as biological inoculum, nutrients, fertilizers and appropriate gases, a controlled photobioreactor environment is created for enhancing growth of microorganisms. Once the light, nutrients, biological, pH and physical environmental conditions

8 match the biological needs of the microorganisms including native cyanobacteria and algae species present in the pond, and now delimited by a volume enveloped by the submerged bioreactor chamber, controlled cycles of algae growth are generated, renewed, cycle after cycle.
Algae growth cycles powered by solar light and by nutrients speed up metabolism of chemical compounds that are gradually refined into valuable metabolites that are time to time extracted from the chamber. It is known that an active biorefiney process shortens significantly reclamation time of settling basins and tailings ponds. The process is further enhanced using metabolically engineered algae species that over express certain valuable chemical compounds used by multiple industries, including for making biofuels.
Methane is a valuable source of energy. It can generate electricity, light, heat and a wide range of chemicals of good economic value. Hot CO.SUB.2 gases exhausted from an electrical generator consuming the collected methane, when injected back into the bioreactor wastewater not only elevate the temperature of the water but enable to operate the chamber under all seasons while controlling pH variations. Hot CO.SUB.2 gases speed up further microbial growth. As an .. example, in selected algae species, an increase of 10 C doubles microbial yield. Also, CO.SUB.2 provides microorganisms with a rich source of carbon, an essential nutrient source for most cyanobacteria and microalgae species.
Under such arrangements, the low-cost, large scale customized film of the invention, when submerged under water creates an environment that provides two important functions ¨ a first methane collection capability that generates energy and produces a wide range of useful chemical products and second a biorefinery function that speeds up bioremediation by many-folds and leads to the production of valuable bioproducts. Both functions are interchangeable or complement each other at any time. Other advantages of the biorefinery chamber include, water

9 purification, oxygen generation, substantial reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the chamber catchment area. It is known that methane gas is 21 times more destructive to the ozone layer than CO.SUB.2. Another major advantage of the invention relates to time gained from the reduction of tailings reclamation time, a serious concern in terms of eco-liabilities left after closure of a mining operation. Finally, but of no lesser value, is the economic value generated by monetizing eco-liabilities and turning them into bio-assets in the form of valuable chemicals generated through a controlled bioremediation process.
The invention provides other technical advantages over prior art. Being submerged under water, the biorefinery chamber offers the ability to operate under all-weather conditions, particularly under harsh and extreme winter conditions where mines and oil sands tailings are located. The system has virtually no moving part and operates primarily in a passive mode, yet has a bioactive life cycle enhanced by the injections of nutrients that speed up its biological activity. The biorefinery chamber 10 can be made of multiple plastic materials. With an appropriate choice of these materials, the life span of the low-cost passive system can be extended between ten to twenty years.
Furthermore, submerging this combination collector-bioreactor-biorefinery chamber under a body of water protects it, to a great extent, from extreme environmental hazards such as extreme variation in temperature, rain, snow, ice, heat, ultraviolet light, winds, thunder and typhoons. It also reduces tear and wear and oxidization of the plastic. Hence, its operation can be maintained under all weather conditions. In one embodiment of the invention, the customized film is made of a biodegradable material that controllably biodegrades when subject to a selected enzyme.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the biorefinery chamber 10 wherein an elongate film12 holds along its borders, a set of weight means 16 and 17, including, but not limited to cement blocks, sand buckets 16, gravel buckets 16, or recycled materials such as semi-rigid or short-length rigid materials heavier than water. As an example as shown in FIG. 8, a stainless steel cable 37 is inserted into hems or seams 35 sewn at the film 12 borders.
Optionally, weight means 16 or 17 are tethered or attached to film 12 borders using buckles, ring means or hook means 74.
The purpose of weight means 16 or 17 is to pull down by gravity force film 12 borders of the lighter-than-water film12 and stabilize the position of the biorefinery chamber 10 over an underwater floor surface. The collaborative action of gravity forces pulling film12 borders downwards with the plastic film 12 lighter- than-water upward forces cause a deformation of the plastic film 12 creating an arc-shape configuration; this self-shaping action facilitates deployment and erection of the large-scale biorefinery chamber 10 in tailings water.
To assist displacement of gases towards an outside facility for further processing, at least one bell-shape gas chamber 18 with a height extending above water level also referred as hood 18 receives gases generated from the chamber's catchment area, and directs the gases through a flexible conduit 20 for further processing towards a central processing unit or optionally towards decentralized units located outside the water surface. Hood 18 is substantially centrally located in relation to film 12 borders. When using multiple hoods 18 on larger chambers, hoods 18 are positioned on a centrally-located ridge line, highest line on chamber 10. To maintain each hood 18 at a highest point, a buoy 14 is attached to hood 18. A second set of conduits 22 displace gases, fluids or solid particles in a reverse direction injecting inputs into the tailings water such as, but not limited to, biological inoculum, medium, chemicals, cold gases, hot gases and fertilizers.

Except for conduits 20 and 22 exposed to outdoor conditions, hoods 18 and buoys 14 are the only hardware that particularly exposed to harsh weather conditions, as the chamber body 10 is submerged under water. For this reason, hood 18 is made of stainless steel and held above water level by weather-resistant buoys 14. All other components of the biorefinery chamber 10 stay submerged at all times.
Recently, scientists have reported that in the frozen tundra of the arctic, at least half of the annual methane emissions occur in the cold months from September to May. If this is correct, it is important for the biorefinery chamber 10 to continue to operate during winter seasons, collecting methane and generating electricity, which in turn generates hot CO.SUB.2 gases that enhance the process of bioremediation, enhancing further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions during winter time.
FIG. 2 provides a perspective view of the position of multiple biorefinery chamber 10, next to each other over a tailings pond. For ease of operation, each module of the biorefinery chamber 10 is autonomous and can be operated independently from others.
Modularity keeps the size of biorefinery chamber 10 to a reasonable dimension, making it easier from a manufacturing and a deployment standpoint.
Operating a cluster of multiple biorefinery chambers 10 exposed simultaneously to same input but at variable time scale or to separate inputs provides a platform for the conversion of algal biomass into several product streams and their growth optimization. As an example, a volume of bioactive metabolites generated from one of the biorefinery chambers 10 may serve as inoculum to another group of biorefinery chambers 10, or the impact of variable inputs on separate biorefinery chambers 10 may be compared to a control unit.

FIG. 3 shows a film12 laid flat floating over a span of water from a wastewater treatment plant, a mine settling basin or from an oil sands tailings pond, just before buoys 50 that hold film 12 borders above water level 30 are released, freeing weighting means to sink film borders so that the film can adopt, by itself, an arc-shape configuration. Using natural forces such as buoyancy and gravity forces enables the fast deployment of large size biorefinery chambers 10 to treat a corresponding large volume of tailings water. Despite the generally large scale and sizes of bodies of water that require bioremediation, the refinery chamber 10 requires minimal input of manpower and lifting forces for erecting the self-erecting, self-shaping biorefinery chamber 10 of the invention.
FIG. 3 also illustrates how the cylindrical bell-shape gas discharge chamber or hood 18 is provided with an inner concentric cylinder that acts as a condensation wall for degassing methane or CO.SUB 2 that exits from water underneath of said hood 18. Gases enter hood 18 from the center of inner cylinder and are forced to rise above wall cylinder 19 and to come down again to exit into flexible conduit 20.
Chamber 10 is provided with a film 12 having suitable length and width to reach the floor of the body of water containing said chamber 10 with film 12 borders suitably weighted to overcome buoyancy forces. Said arrangement for chamber 10 provided with a light-permeable film 12 being submerged and standing over an underwater floor creates a generally closed bioactive environment that defines an arc-shaped biorefinery chamber 10.
To facilitate deployment of chamber 10, in one embodiment of the invention, as shown in FIG. 4, gravity forces created by weight means 16 provided along borders of film 12 are countered by an additional set of detachable buoys 50 attached to a ring arrangement provided at film 12 borders. Given that operating in a hazardous environment such as over a settling basin or tailing pond often exposed to methane gases, it is of particular importance to minimize agitation of the tailings water for fear of releasing uncontrollable amounts of methane to the air.
Overcoming these environmental and physical limitations, film 12 of the invention provides a passive approach to the problem of greenhouse gas reduction. The self-shaping film12 erects itself, slowly, creating virtually no agitation as chamber 10 walls sink slowly into the water until reaching the underwater floor, providing first, a passive function of collecting gases and second, a bioactive function of bioremediation inside a bioreactor/biorefinery environment, all this, without involving moving parts or requiring physical external inputs. Control of gas, liquid and solid particle input, or gas and liquid output, is achieved remotely via flexible conduits 20 and 22 suitable to displace gases and liquids, obviating the need of physical contact with the biorefinery chamber 10. In addition, switching from a methane collection mode to a biorefinery mode is achieved remotely.
As shown in FIG. 3, each biorefinery chamber 10 module includes a pane of film13 affixed to close each end of the arc-shape biorefinery chamber 10, for film 12 and film 13 collectively creating a generally closed bottomless chamber 10. End film portions 13 are optionally connected sealingly at 90 degree angle with the chamber longitudinal peripheral walls or are connected by attachable means such as zipper means 302 as shown in FIG.
9. Said connection means facilitate manufacturing and erection of large size film surfaces.
Similar to other film 12 borders, film 13 defines chamber 10 end borders that are provided optionally with an elongate weight means 37 in the form of a piece of stainless steel cable inserted in hem 35 or externally attached by buckle means for landing chamber 10 longitudinal or transversal borders over an underwater floor surface.

In an embodiment of the invention showing how a set of detachable buoys 50 are released from weight means 16 and 17 attached to border of film 12, FIG. 4 shows the detail view A-A from FIG. 3 that illustrates an arrangement of rings 73 and 74 being used to assist the disengagement function of each ring 73 attached to buoy 50 from a matching ring 74 attached to borders of film 12. To this end, an elongate semi-rigid cable 80 is laced through both rings 73 and rings 74 holding said rings temporarily connected to each other. Once film12 is positioned over a body of water in a flat open fully floating position and moved to a final position over the water surface, cable 80 is pulled out from all set of rings 73 and 74, releasing detachably buoys 50 from rings 74 and causing film12 borders to sink and adopt, under the body of water, an arc-shape configuration. View A-A shows the cross sectional view of how a rope 52 is inserted into film 10 border hem 60 kept folded by a connector means 90 such as a grommet or by heat sealing means. Said arrangement created for ring 74 attached to weight means 16 or 17 to pull by gravity force the borders of film 12.
FIGS. 5 and 6 show an embodiment of a submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber 100 comprising multiple levels of chambers positioned under a single roof.
Chamber 100 material is made of multiple layers of flexible, light-permeable, plastic film all having a density lower than the body of water in which they are immersed in; while buoyancy forces will generally keep the entire volume of the lighter-than-water film 12 of the multilayered chamber 100 floating over a body of water, a set of sliding weight means in the form of metal sleeves 31 each affixed by connector means to multiple points along chamber 100 bottom borders, cause chamber 100 to stand erect. To keep peripheral walls stretched to adopt a generally vertical position, film 12 borders at chamber 100 roof level are provided with tether means attached to floatable rings 28 that slide along a vertical cable 27 stretched between an anchor means 16 and a buoy 29, said anchor means being positioned over the underwater floor, around the contour of refinery chamber 100 and demarking its position in a body of water. To facilitate fast deployment of chamber 100, sleeves 31 are each attached to a rope that passes optionally through ring 28 and ends with a small buoy (not shown); pulling the rope out of water lifts the weighted sleeve up for connecting it to a point along chamber bottom borders and then releasing it down to pull the chamber 100 bottom to floor level.
The vertical position of a submerged biorefinery 10 and 100 is adjustable by adjusting the position of sleeves 31. This in turn, provides adjustability of volumes of liquid contained in each biorefinery chamber.
It is known that biofilms build over surfaces exposed to light and to bioactive waters.
Biofilm formation over plastic film 12 reduces or prevents light penetration into the body of bioactive water enveloped by film 12. It is also known that water agitation around this film 12 surface reduces or prevents such a negative biofilm formation. To overcome this limitation, and as shown in detail view C-C of FIG. 8, at the bottom film 10 borders in an embodiment of the refinery chamber 10 of a single film layer 12 or at the bottom film 12 borders in a multilayered refinery chamber 100, a hem 35 is provided with a space for enclosing a weight means in the form of a cable 37 and small apertures 21 suitably positioned for creating a sparger tube effect that generates bubbles that rise along the film 10 inner surface and agitate water in the immediately adjacent area. Gases and fluids 23 coming out of small apertures 21 of sparger tubes 35 into the biorefinery chambers 10 and 100 are provided from flexible hoses 22 connected to said sparger tubes 35.
In an embodiment of the multilayered refinery chamber 100 as shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, all generally horizontal film layers 17 and 19, except for chamber 100 generally horizontal roof layer 12, are provided with small apertures 21 positioned along and in close proximity of horizontal film borders intersecting with generally vertical peripheral walls 15 and chamber end walls 13. To generate agitation closer to vertical peripheral walls 15, said walls 15 are internally and slightly inclined as shown in FIG. 7.
In another embodiment of the multilayered refinery chamber 100, agitation of water along peripheral walls 15 and 13 created to reduce or prevent biofilm formation is provided by gases and liquids directed towards chamber walls 15 and 13, and injected by flexible hoses 22 in the body of water enclosed by chambers 10 and 100.
In yet another embodiment of the submerged biorefinery chamber 10 and 100, at least one surface of film 12 is treated in a manner to prohibit bacterial growth.
Metabolites generated in the biorefinery chamber 10 and 100 are convertible into chemicals comprising from the group comprising bioplastics, methanol, fertilizers, chemicals, urea, biofuels, syngas, and carbon-based products.
In one embodiment of the invention, as shown in FIG. 9, to manage the handling and deployment of very large spans of film 12, the submerged biorefinery chambers

10 or 100 are divided into multiple portions that are later joined together. As an example, a chamber 10 or 100 is first divided into two portions, second each portion is collapsed into an accordion-type fold and third the folded portion is reduced into a roll; at erection time, the right roll 204 and the left roll 202 each positioned on a common or on a separate barge 400 are brought next to each other so that their common borders are fastened together by a connector means 300 as rolls 202 and 204 are unrolled and the film material 12 is spread out over the surface of a body of water, while the barge 400 moves forward. Means to fasten film common borders 300 are selected from the group comprising, a zip-type fastener, a hoop-and-loop-type fastener, an extruded male-female-type fastener and a combination thereof.
In an embodiment of the invention, weight means supported by buoys 50 and affixed to chamber borders weight means 16 and 17 at selected points are released causing the sinking of .. said borders as the barge 400 moves forward.
Hood 18 and its associate buoy 14, as well as flexible conduits 20 and 22 are gradually attached to the film 12 surface, just before film 12 leaves barge 400.
Native or imported microorganisms which growth is being enhanced by the submerged biorefinery chambers 10 and 100 of the invention are suitably selected to bioremediate in-pond and in situ bodies of fluids selected from the group comprising, but not limited to, wastewater from treatment plants, liquid waste, ponds, lakes, rivers, tailings dams, settling basins, ocean shores, oil spills, mine tailings, oil and gas tailings, tailings impoundments, paste tailings, riverine tailings, submarine tailings, refuse, leachates, and a combination thereof.
Microorganisms such as algae and cyanobacteria that are injected in the body of fluids contained in said chamber 10 and 100 generate metabolites that are harvested by pump means using optionally the same flexible hose 22 that were used for injecting products sourced from external sources.
The submerged biorefinery chamber 10 and 100 is made of a light-permeable plastic film 12 or of a plastic sheet 12 that is selected from the group comprising a weather resistant geotextile, high strength reinforced polyethylene film, marine canvas, and tear-resistant plastic sheets of the like.

In an embodiment of the invention, the submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber 10 or 100, having except for top film layer 12 provided with at least one substantially centrally-located gas discharge hood held above water level, is provided with multiple film layers 17 and 19 comprising at least one generally centrally-located gravity-based flap-type fluid discharge valve 41 and 43; each of said fluid discharge valve 41 and 43 for venting accumulated gases generated from liquid from own level as well as gases from liquids from lower levels.
In a submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber 10 or 100, each sedimentation zone in a bioactive settling basin is treatable separately within a chamber layer dedicated to that zone; as an example, for an oil sands tailings pond separate layers comprising, mature fine tailings, fluid fine tailings and recyclable water are treatable separately.
The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber 10 and 100 provides bioprocessing of microorganisms in all sedimentation layers in a pond, independent from weather conditions including when said biorefinery chamber 10 or 100 is covered by an ice cap or exposed to extreme weather conditions.
In an embodiment of the invention, after the life cycle of biorefinery chambers 10 or 100 has ended, the material of film 12 made from a biodegradable material biodegrades controllably using enzymes; this prevents polluting bodies of water with plastic film 12.
The biorefinery chamber 10 is modular and configured to meet a varied number of site requirements. Likewise, the system may be reconfigured while in use to accommodate changing needs and conditions. Hence, it is to be understood that the biorefinery chamber 10 may be implemented in a number of embodiments; and while the biorefinery chamber 10 will be explained with regard to some specific embodiments, other embodiments are within the scope of the invention and will be readily apparent to those of skill in the art.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly certain features of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood.
Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and the specific embodiments disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes as the disclosed biorefinery chamber 10. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

I CLAIM:

1. A submerged biorefinery chamber comprising:
.cndot. a substantially elongate, substantially wide, light-permeable, floatable flexible film;
.cndot. weight means affixed to said film borders causing said borders to sink under a body of water at a selected height wherein gravity forces balance with buoyancy forces;
.cndot. at least one gas discharge hood cooperating fluidingly and sealingly with a centrally-located aperture provided on the film; the gas discharge hood further cooperating fluidingly with a flexible gas output hose that displaces gases to an external processing facility;
.cndot. a buoy that counterbalances weight of said gas discharge hood and maintains the hood at highest position over film; and wherein the arrangement between gravity forces and buoyancy forces causes the film to adopt a generally arc-shape configuration for defining a submerged bottomless chamber having gas discharge means at normal atmospheric level.

2. The submerged biorefinery chamber according to claim 1, wherein the film is provided with a substantial length and a substantial width suitable to extend to the floor of the body of water containing said chamber with borders of said film suitably weighted to overcome buoyancy forces; said light-permeable submerged chamber standing over said floor creating collectively a generally closed bioactive environment defining an arc-shaped biorefinery chamber.

3. The submerged biorefinery chamber according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said chamber is provided with a bottomless cuboid-shape configuration with a generally arc-shape roof and peripheral walls maintained generally vertical by means comprising:
.cndot. a set of anchors each attachable to a cable segment attachable to a buoy; each cable segment including a floatable ring positioned over a weighted sleeve; both ring and sleeve slidable along each cable segment;
.cndot. said anchors positioned and spread out along an imaginary rectangular path;
.cndot. said rings connected by tether means to multiple points around said roof borders; and .cndot. said sleeves connected by tether mean to multiple points around said chamber bottom borders; and wherein the roof height of the submerged bottomless cuboid-shape chamber, positionable on any generally flat underwater surface, defines the mass of water being treated.

4. The submerged biorefinery chamber according to claim 3, wherein the length of said peripheral walls is suitable to extend to the floor of the body of water containing said chamber and said sleeves suitably weighted to overcome the chamber buoyancy forces;
said light-permeable submerged chamber standing over said floor creating a generally closed underwater bioactive environment defining a rectangular-shaped biorefinery chamber having a generally arc-shaped roof.

5. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any of claims 1-2 or 3-4, in which said chamber doubles as a gas collector for collecting gases generated in the body of water contained directly inside and below the chamber.

6. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1-2 and 3-4, further comprising flexible hose means for displacing inwardly fluids and gases as input into the body of water inside said chamber.

7. The submerged biorefinery chamber according to claim 6, wherein flexible hose means for displacing inwardly fluids and gases displace, alternately, fluids outwardly from the body of water enclosed in said chamber: said outwardly displaced fluids comprising, but not limited to, liquid sampling or metabolites.

8. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 2 and 4, wherein said chamber defines a bioreactor.

9. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 2 and 4, wherein said chamber treats tailings water in situ and in-pond a tailings pond.

10. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1-2 and 3-4, wherein said chamber treats in-pond and in situ bodies of fluids selected from the group comprising, but not limited to, wastewater from treatment plants, liquid waste, ponds, lakes, rivers, tailings dams, settling basins, ocean shores, oil spills, mine tailings, oil and gas tailings, tailings impoundments, paste tailings, riverine tailings, submarine tailings, refuse, leachates, and a combination thereof.

11. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1-2 and 3-4, wherein said bioreactor doubles as a large scale gas collector.

12. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1-2 and 3-4, wherein said film is made from a biodegradable material that biodegrades controllably using enzymes.

13. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 6 and 7, wherein the body of liquid enveloped by said chamber receives, via said flexible hoses, a set of inputs selected from the group comprising, but not limited to, gases, liquids, fertilizers, nutrients, biological inoculum and a combination thereof.

14. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, and 3, in which film borders further comprising a hem-like fold with small apertures on the chamber inner-side forming a sparger tube that generates bubbles that rise along and inside of the chamber light-permeable peripheral walls reducing biofilm formation.

15. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 6 and 7, wherein injection of fluids from said flexible hose is directed towards the inner surface of the chamber light-permeable peripheral walls creating an agitation that reduces formation of biofilm on the inner side of the film.

16. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 6 and 7, further comprising algae and cyanobacteria being injected in the body of fluids contained in said chamber for generating metabolites from the biologically active environment that are harvested by pump means and displaced via said flexible hose to an external processing facility.

17. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 6 and 7, wherein methane gas emissions collected from the chamber are converted into electrical energy, which in turn exhausts C.O.sub2 emissions and heat that are injected back into the body of fluids under the same chamber or into a separate chamber; said hot emissions providing heat to said chamber fluid mass and control pH levels in the chamber.

18. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, wherein the light-permeable film is selected from the group comprising a permeable membrane, an impermeable membrane, a water-impermeable but gas permeable membrane, a weather resistant geotextile, high strength reinforced polyethylene film, marine canvas, tear-resistant plastic sheets and a combination thereof.

19. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, wherein at least one surface of the film is treated to prohibit bacterial growth.

20. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, 2, 3, and 4, wherein weight means are selected from the group comprising, but not limited to, sand bag, concrete block, stones bag, metal parts, metal cables.

21. The submerged biorefinery chamber according to claim 7 or 16, wherein metabolites generated in the biorefinery chamber are convertible into chemicals comprising from the group comprising bioplastics, methanol, fertilizers, chemicals, urea, biofuels, syngas, and carbon products.

22. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, in which the chamber film is reducible into a left chamber portion and a right chamber portion, with each chamber portion being collapsible into a respective right roll and a left roll;
fastening of said two parts being provided by a fastener means selected from the group comprising, a zip-type fastener, a hoop-and-loop-type fastener, an extruded male-female-type fastener and a combination thereof.

23. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, wherein operating a cluster of multiple biorefinery chambers in a same body of water creates an ecosystem environment that enhances the conversion of algal biomass into several product streams.

24. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, wherein operating a cluster of multiple biorefinery chambers enables microorganisms or metabolites cultivated from one chamber to become feed for enhancing growth of microorganisms in another chamber.

25. The submerged biorefinery chamber as in any one of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, wherein operating a cluster of multiple biorefinery chambers enables the restoration of an underwater ecosystem.

26. A submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber comprising:
.cndot. Multiple layers of flexible, light-permeable, plastic films having a density lower than the body of water in which they are immersed in;
.cndot. said chamber provided with a bottomless cuboid-shape configuration, a generally arc-shape roof and generally vertical peripheral walls maintained by means comprising:
.cndot. a set of anchors, each attached to a cable segment that ends with a hook attachable to a buoy; each said cable segment including a weighted sleeve and a floatable ring, both said sleeve and said ring slidable along said cable;
.cndot. said anchors being positioned over an imaginary generally rectangular grid comprising intersecting nodes formed by at least two imaginary columns intersecting multiple imaginary rows; the size and location of the chamber outer contour being defined by the position of outer corner nodes;
.cndot. said weighted sleeves fastenable by connector means to multiple contact points located along bottom borders of the lowest chamber peripheral walls; the sleeves being weighted suitably to pull down said multi-layered chamber over an underwater floor;
.cndot. A set of rings positioned above said weighted sleeves, each of said rings fastenable by connector means to multiple contact points located along to chamber top borders; and wherein gravity and buoyancy forces cause the combination film layers and peripheral walls to adopt, a multilayered chamber configuration.

27. The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber according to claim 26 wherein a generally arc-shaped roof from a bottom chamber layer becomes a floor to a next level higher chamber layer; such pattern repeating itself except for lowest bottom chamber that uses the floor of the body of water as bottom surface for the lowest chamber.

28. The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber according to claim 26 wherein enhancing growth of microorganism in situ their native environment at a selected water pressure level is achievable by inserting in that same environment, a chamber layer that envelops a portion of that environment.

29. The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber according to claim 26 wherein the vertical position of said chambered biorefinery is adjustable by adjusting the position of said sleeves.

30. The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber according to claim 26 wherein the volume of liquid contained in each layer of said biorefinery chamber is adjustable by adjusting the position of said sleeves.

31. The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber according to claim 26, wherein except for top film layer provided with at least one substantially centrally-located gas discharge hood, each generally horizontally-oriented film layer further comprising at least one generally centrally-located gravity-based flap-type fluid discharge valve;
each of said fluid discharge valve for venting accumulated gases generated from liquid present at own level as well as gases from liquids from lower levels.

32. The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber according to claim 26, wherein each water zone in a bioactive settling basin is treatable separately within a chamber floor dedicated to that zone.

33. The submerged multilayered biorefinery chamber according to claim 26, wherein bioprocessing of microorganisms in all sedimentation layers of a pond is achievable under all weather conditions including when said biorefinery chamber is covered by an ice cap or exposed to extreme weather conditions.