The use of new clay technology is being used on the Norfolk Broads for the first time to reduce algae growth and improve water quality.
BBC: Norfolk Broads: Clay technology 'aids How Hill reserve'
The public proposition, at this point, anyway, is not that drones will subjugate or assassinate unwitting citizens but that they will conduct search-and-rescue operations, fight fires, catch bad guys, inspect pipelines, spray crops, count nesting cranes and migrating caribou, and measure weather data and algae growth.
Add iron, the theory goes, and you will promote the growth of algae.
When discharged into waterways, they cause excessive growth of algae, which can smell bad and which robs the water of oxygen that fish need to survive.
These, paradoxically, have opposite effects on the growth of algae.
The benefits of floatovoltaics include keeping the panels cooler than they would be on land, reducing the amount of water lost to evaporation and slowing the growth of algae without the use of chemicals.
It is also installing stern flaps on its amphibious vehicles that can reduce fuel use by 2-3%, and developing better coatings to prevent the growth of algae and barnacles on hulls that cause drag and increase fuel consumption.
Reducing algae levels will encourage the growth of more plant species and wildlife to inhabit the reserve.
BBC: Norfolk Broads: Clay technology 'aids How Hill reserve'
Even the most potentially disturbing suggestion, which involves fertilising the oceans with iron in order to promote the growth of planktonic algae (in the hope that they would sink to the seabed, taking their carbon with them), can be covered by the London Convention on marine pollution, which regulates dumping at sea, and has already addressed itself to research in the area.
Algae are highly valued in biofuels research because of their high growth rate.
FORBES: Biofuel From Algae Could Compete With Oil, Report Says
It is possible that the designer method can overcome some of the drawbacks involved with making fuel from algae, namely robustness and competitiveness of particular strains over other organisms, enhanced growth rate and yields of algal oil.
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