[thudpucker]

I had one semester of Chem 101 in 1961. Does that make me a Citizen Chemist?

I want to make Algae diesel. It's been said that Botryococcus braunii is the best stuff for that.

How do I grow the Botryococcus braunii?
What kind of container?
Does it need a large surface area?
Do I need O2 Bubbling up in the stuff?
What Temp?
Will artificial light work?

I need some help.

After I get the B-Braunii going, dried and start taking the Lipids out to extract the Oil, I'll need some more help.
Dick

[Arkcon]

Why not start with this reference page, and see if you can figure out some of the answers yourself?

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/algae-biodiesel.htm

It seems pretty comprehensive, and pretty easy to understand.

[thudpucker]

Comprehensive? It does not answer my questions on how to grow that particular algae.

I've been reading links for years now. I belong to two sites, and still none of the info tells exactly what to do when I get some of that Algae in hand.

[billnotgatez]

Basically I see citizen scientists as persons who want to do science as a hobby. That means researching and experimenting on your own. For instance I know of people launching their own radiosonde balloons to do weather research on their own.

As to your question, I did a GOOGLE and got a WIKI article on your topic.
I am wondering if any of the references at the bottom of the article would be of important reading.

Since this field appears to be new, I have not seen a cookbook for your interest yet. Therefore, you would have to rely on someone who has actually worked in this area and I am not sure anyone in this chemist forum is doing biological work on Botryococcus_braunii. I am interested too, but have too many other things I am researching now. I am actually going to do fermentation first then see what I can do in bio-diesel.

On the other hand based on my knowledge from a bacteriology course taken years ago I can make some general statements.

Algae usually need lots of flat surface area to do photosynthesis.

One would have to know if the Algae of interest like high oxygen to grow better.
  for instance yeast like oxygen in the beginning and later it is better to have low oxygen for fermentation. Do you know what Botryococcus_braunii from your research or experimentation.

We had some threads on this forum involving bio-diesel with some links, but they got deleted by mistake.

If I were in your place I would get a 1 meter square tub and do some experimenting changing parameters like temperature and lighting.

Alternatively, I would search the bio-diesel sites and see if they have a sidebar on
Botryococcus_braunii

[fledarmus]

Try searching under algaculture. This is a rather specialized field, and there are a number of people that provide seminars on the subject. Home algaculture is just beginning to attract enough interest for commercial designs to come forward.