Projects

Fat Beet Farm is the food service commissary and microgreen hydroponic and raised bed production farm serving the 5 Curci Family Noble Crust restaurants in Tampa. 

Located in Oldsmar near the bridge to Dunedin and the Race Track, not far from the University of South Florida,  Fat Beet Farm serves as a sustainable practice model for the Food Energy Water Nexus Zero Waste Initiative where Patel College Interns work for credit to put sustainable development theory into practice.

Working with fellow National Geographic Explorer Dr. Luke Dollar, Chair of the Center for the Environment and Catawba College's Department of Environment and Sustainability and his students, T.H. and Enas Culhane built a "twin dragon" Solar CITIES IBC tank digester system with floating IBC tank gas holder inside the greenhouse on campus. The system has 100 foot of pex coil in each tank connected to a propane gas water heater to circulate hot water in the system and will eventually be switched to biogas. 

Ashlee Painter lead  students from the Patel Collge of Global Sustainability at USF Tampa on an adventure into the unknown with Saltwater digesters to combat coastal pollution and climate change.



The best way to describe the experience is through the words of our Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Student Kaitlin Davis who wrote in her class relational summary on 

Mathis Thørrisen and Colby and Anna Marie and their team at Hillsborough Community College built this Solar Cities floating IBC system for their Sustainable Living Expo on campus. We will build an identical one at MOSI on Monday with Ian Reed and students. We hope every school and science museum will " adopt a dragon" and make biodigester tech a core part of STEAM education. Well done HCC!

HomeBiogas representatiive Tracy Love Tippin and Patel College of Global Sustianability Professor T.H. Culhane, along with HomeBiogas Israel, made a donation of a HomeBiogas unit to Sacred Lands and built a Solar CITIES tank based system, this time (for the first time since our build in Kayseri Turkey at Eciyes University in December of 2016) ) using a used pill shaped water/fuel tank.

In Brooksville Florida we built two biodigesters at Koreen Brennan's "Our Permaculture Farm" -- first we assembled the Israel Home Biogas system she had purchased and then on another day we did a workshop where we built a Solar CITIES floating IBC biodigester.

At the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) across the road (Fowller)  from my office at the Patel College of Global Sustainabiity I personally donated, and our students constructed, both a Solar CITIES floating IBC biodigester and my HomeBiogas digester from Israel.  We worked with education leader Ian Reed and high school students from his summer school team and now have a showcase for both the DIY method and the commercial system, side by side that is used to teach schoolkids and visitors every day.

Across from the Lowry Park Zoo, next to the Salvation Army on Sligh Avenue in Tampa lies the 1 acre paradise called the Sustainable Living Center, created by visionary urban resilience pioneer Will Carey.  With out Patel College Students we built a Solar CITIES IBC tank liquid compost biodigester to complement the composting operation they have on site, producing rich fertilizer for their garden.

As part of our Green Faith Initiative we built a couple of biodigesters with the students of USF's Patel College with Reverend Russel Meyer at the Fairth Lutheran Evangelical Church Community Garden to supply liquid compost to the raised beds, working with Engineer Doctor Eric Weaver and gardening expert David Whitwam.

As part of our Green Faith Initiative we have introduced Biodigesters to the USF Hillel Center shepherded by visionary green Rabbi Ed Rosenthal. and Program Director Sylvie Feinsmith to complement their community garden (of Eatin!).

They make some fine home-made ice cream at the USF Hillel and whatever melts or isn't eaten... can turn back into fuel and fertilizer! Thanks to Ed and Sylvie and the staff of Hillel for being the first place on USF campus to "adopt a dragon".

we built a solar cities IBC tank biodigester at the Mermaid Tavern on 41 Nebraska Avenue. Be a part of our few Nexus team starting with food waste to fuel and fertilizer and eventually aquaponics and hydroponics in one of the first restaurants to go zero waste and grow local food. You can be a part of the dream. And for those of you who have already built with us, come make Florida great... again!

After two years of discussion and planning since my first visit to the University of South Florida, my students and I from the Patel College of Global Sustainability completed a new year's build of "twin dragon" solar CITIES IBC Biodigesters with floating IBC gas holder.

Cold snaps in Florida kept them from producing methane until the end of February, but they will now each take a bucket of grease trap waste from the Moffet Cancer Center Green Team here on campus!