Could You Breathe Using Only Plants Inside a Sealed Room?

Introduction

• Scenario: You're trapped in a spaceship with failed life support and limited air supply.
• Question: Can plants convert enough CO2 back into oxygen to keep you alive in a sealed room?
• Inspiration: A viral social media post claimed that 6 to 8 snake plants could suffice in a sealed room.
• Real-life Example: The film Mission to Mars inspired this experiment.
• Objective: Determine how many plants are needed to sustain one person's breathable air in a sealed environment.

Goal

• Primary Goal: Verify whether the viral post about snake plants is true or false.
• Secondary Goal: Find a way to stay in a sealed room indefinitely using just plants.

Experiment Setup

• Materials: Snake plants, airtight box, CO2 monitor, stopwatch.
• Control Test: Measure how long it takes to reach unsafe CO2 levels without any plants in the room.
• Procedure: Repeat the test with different amounts of plants to see if they affect CO2 levels.

Baseline Results

• First Test: No plants, reaching 2000 ppm of CO2 in 30 minutes.
• Key Metric: CO2 saturation rate of 44.4 ppm/minute.

Snake Plants Test

• First Plant Test: 6 snake plants; reached 2000 ppm in approximately the same time.
• Second Plant Test: 12 snake plants; still not much effect on CO2 levels.
• Conclusion: 6-12 snake plants are not enough to significantly reduce CO2 levels.

Algae as an Alternative

• Introduction to Algae: Chlorella Vulgaris, a more efficient oxygen producer.
• Prototype Setup: Using 2 and 4-gallon bottles with algae, aeration, and light.
• Results with Algae: Initial slow CO2 increase but eventually still reached unsafe levels.

Scaling Up

• Large-Scale Algae Bioreactors: Using 55-gallon barrels and custom-built lights to maximize algae grown and oxygen production.
• Enhanced Results: With over 100 gallons of algae, CO2 levels rose much more slowly.

Key Findings

• Final Experiments: Used additional small-scale and large-scale algae bioreactors combined.
• Optimal Results: Managed to stabilize CO2 around 2000-3500 ppm, indicating livable conditions with enough algae.

Reflection and Next Steps

• Pending Confirmation: Need more tests to ensure long-term sustainability.
• Final Goal: Spend an entire day in the sealed, algae-powered room to fully confirm results.
• Safety Precaution: Introduced O2 and CO2 gas meters for more detailed analysis.

Conclusion

• Takeaway: While houseplants are not sufficient to sustain breathable air in a sealed room, algae bioreactors show promise.
• Next Experiment: Stay in the room for a full day to finalize results.