Kirra Biotope & Habitat

The Kirra Biotope and habitat is about realising the possibilities. 

Most, if not all of the projects that we do within the Kirra Eco-village Community are part of a greater Kirra Biotope. 

While a conventional biotope puts animal and plant interactions in to a balanced systemic relationship, the Kirra biotope goes a little further. Our biotope plan takes outputs from prior projects and uses them as the inputs for the next related project, even if that project has a finite conclusion or outcome. That is to say, it doesn't produce an output for another project. Similarly, an input can be externally sourced, to perpetuate an internal biotope project and output. An example of an externally sourced resource is plastic.

We have published an e-Book about our Biotope and the importance of the off grid Biotope.

Consider the following scenario. 

Plastic & Tyres (Tires) - This waste comes into the Kirra Eco-village environment in many ways, most notably as product packaging. Socially and environmentally, there is a need to clean-up the plastic in our greater society. While there doesn't appear to be an indication that its use or consumption is slowing down, the abundance of this waste (other than a cause for alarm) could be considered something of a blessing in disguise - we like to call it "precious plastic". 

Thermoplastics can be recycled and made into new items of value using any number of melting and reforming processes or techniques. Other types of plastic (including mixed plastics) create plastic waste that society disposes of in landfill or by burning it. Burning plastic releases toxic gases and high amounts of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into the air along with other toxins such as Carbon Monoxide (CO) a gas which is odorless, colourless and highly poisonous. This outcome means that this method of disposal is less than ideal and certainly can't be considered sustainable or environmentally friendly.

Our solution in dealing with this waste stream is to pyrolize it! This means burning the waste plastic material in a closed-oxygen free environment, like a purpose built pyrolizer. In this process, rather than combusting, the plastic is converted back into it constituent components - fossil fuels, from which it came. Our research indicates that for every 11 kg of mixed plastic waste, 1 Litre of Diesel fuel, 1 Litre of Petrol and 4 Litres of Butane (C4H10) a combustible gas is produced. 

Unfortunately once this fossil fuel is extracted from the ground, it's a genie that can't be put back into the bottle. So, rather than just release the toxic emissions by burning the plastic to dispose of it, we will give it another life first. We are also given the opportunity to further reduce the toxic emissions by using catalytic converters and other technology. We then consume those liquid fuels in our farm machinery, generators, vehicles etc. while the Butane is pooled with our other flammable gasses and consumed for cooking and water heating. We appreciate that this is not an ideal situation, but we think it's better than letting the plastic pollute the oceans or simply burning it which releases even more CO2.

Other emissions that result from the pyrolization process still include the gasses CO2 and CO. We process those gasses through our Algae farm project. This abundant production of CO2 is consumed by the algae which in turn releases Oxygen (O2) as it respires. The abundance of CO2 causes a greater creation of biomass, which in turn is used for compost.

This example demonstrates how our biotope works as a series of building blocks or projects, inevitably coming together to produce a wide biotope that consumes prior outputs and an output that is consumed by another process - effectively a closed loop.

Picture this same model applied to all waste streams. We have a comprehensive project plan to cater for all waste streams. Cardboard waste and wood waste are consumed and converted to Methanol (CH3OH) (also known as methyl alcohol and wood spirit) - we want to use this to further enhance our prior "Pyrolized Plastic" fuel production to stretch the resulting fuels to become more efficient "E" based fuels, such as E85 and E50, turning our pyrolized plastic - petrol (gasoline) into 85% petrol and 15% wood alcohol, or 50% petrol and 50% wood alcohol. Besides increasing our overall fuel production volume, "E" fuels burn cleaner whilst keeping the engine cleaner, the fuel lines cleaner and helping maintain good engine health and longevity. All of these considerations help to reduce the overall cost of maintenance and running the vehicle or engine. The waste from the Wood Alcohol production is simply cellulose (C6H10O5) pulp, which is ideal as mulch in the garden. It can also be used to strengthen adobe which is used to plaster our structures. In both cases, we give a new life to a waste product that has little to no value past its initial use. 

In a much simpler scenario, we use 2nd use water to produce steam which powers a steam engine to generate electricity. Again, this second use water would have otherwise gone onto the garden, giving it at least 2 uses. In this simple process, we boil the 2nd use water, generate electricity, then condense the steam back into water in our dam, which is then used to grow vegetables and plants, which the community consumes. If you consider that the origin of the water used fell from the sky as rain water, we use it once, perhaps for washing or cooking, use it a second time by boiling it to make electricity, then use it a third time to water the garden. The same drops of water have been used and reused. Our steam engine power plant produces about 50.2kW of electrical energy per day. This energy is stored in our batteries or used by the community as it is produced.

To further demonstrate how the Kirra Biotope works, we have added a Kirra Biotope section to each of the Kirra projects, where it's relevant. This demonstrates how the input is derived, and where the output is consumed.

The Kirra Water Biotope

Our water biotope is one of the more simple scenarios. Although not as simple as rain falling from the sky and drinking it, there is a little more to it. It is still a closed loop system, where water is used many times before it is no longer available for re-use.

This diagram demonstrates the processing that is in place to maximize the use of water and ensure that every drop is used for maximum efficiency and the maximum number of times.

In addition to the Kirra Biotope e-Book there are two additional e-Books which deal with Water Capture and Water Purification.

Discover the wonder of Kirra Creek. A wonderful natural part of our community ecosystem.