A garden in the desert at Expo 2020
At the heart of the Czech pavilion is the S.A.W.E.R. (Solar Air Water Energy Resource) system, which produces water from dry desert air using only solar energy. Part of the water is drained into a special room where the photobioreactor and algae come into play. It is all about getting nutrients from the air into the “poor” water. Without nutrients, nothing will grow, no matter how much water there is.
“It looks like a long stainless steel cascading table, with a continuous flow of green water. Special freshwater microalgae proliferate in it, which are able to take up nutrients from the waste water, bind them organically and then slowly release them to the plants,” Miroslav Vosátka from the Institute of Botany of the CAS explains.
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