In Slavic folklore, the Baba Yaga is a witch whose magic hut carries her through the woods on chicken legs, searching for children to gobble up. But living, breathing homes aren鈥檛 so far-fetched, according to Kyoung-Hee Kim, director of UNC Charlotte鈥檚 Integrated Design Research Lab and the spin-off venture .
She developed a window that uses algae to filter air and sunlight to save on energy:
鈥淎lgae, by nature, turns denser during summer, when sunlight is intense, as a function of photosynthesis,鈥� Kim said. 鈥淚n the wintertime, algae grows slower, so they admit the needed winter sunlight.鈥�
The windows in the Charlotte Innovation Barn resemble pale inchworm blinds 鈥� several wide elliptical glass tubes hum along the window sill. Soft spring light passes through the translucent organisms, permitting a cool light to fill the room.
But graduate student Constance Sartor says future windows won鈥檛 be limited to the pale green glow:
鈥淲hen haematococcus is exposed to environmental stressors, it actually produces a compound called astaxanthin, which makes it turn red,鈥� Sartor said. 鈥淒ifferent algae species have different colors. We even played around with bioluminescence.鈥�
Instead of burning out like the filament of a lightbulb, the algae continues to produce resources. Kim calls this 鈥渞egenerative technology.鈥�
Similar to a fish tank volcano, a pump blows bubbles from the bottom of the window. The bubbles travel up through the solution, where algae absorb the carbon dioxide and other pollutants, such as fine particulate matter and volatile organic compounds, and exhale oxygen. By the time the bubbles reach the top and pop, the algae have filtered many pollutants out.
鈥淲e use the carbon dioxide that humans produce to grow biomass and in return, microalgae produce oxygen for humans to be healthier in a building,鈥� Kim said.
The biological process at the windows鈥� heart can actually be extremely catastrophic to an ecosystem under the wrong circumstances. When excess nutrients saturate a river or lake, deadly algae blooms can form, killing fish and rendering the water toxic to humans.
Kim said the next step will be to work with a commercial or nonprofit partner to test-drive the living windows and encouraged interested organizations . They鈥檙e currently displayed at the Innovation Barn. The team is also working on harvesting the algae that grows in the window for use in concrete and biofuels later.
