SBIR Phase I: Enhancing photobioreactor performance for algal cultivation through a novel nano-scale thin film material

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一期项目，如果成功，将展示过滤光的应用，以提高大规模微藻养殖的生产力。传统上，藻类的生长依赖于自然的太阳辐射，这在经济上是可行的。然而，自然阳光并不能促进藻类的生长，并且含有对藻类细胞有害的光谱（如紫外线或红外线）。利用激光和LED等特殊光源来增强有益波长以促进藻类生长是可能的，但成本过高。该项目利用具有成本效益的薄膜材料，选择性地将太阳光中的最佳光谱传输到藻类培养物中。该计划是将多个定制过滤器应用于藻类培养，并测量对细胞生长和形态、化学生产、生物反应器性能的影响。该项目的目标是降低能源成本，提高系统生产力。这个项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是提高光合系统的生产力和经济效益，如藻类和陆地园艺。该项目将有助于更好地了解定向光对藻类的影响，并可能导致生产燃料和化学品的新工艺。此外，提高藻类生长系统的效率，生产商业上有用的产品，如燃料和其他化学品，可以带来经济和环境效益。提高光的利用效率可以节约成本。这些改进降低了进入藻类部门的门槛，这可能会增加该领域的活动。除了有利于藻类生长外，该项目首创的滤光技术还可应用于其他植物生长行业，进一步推动全球保护性农业的蓬勃发展。这些广泛的应用也将促进类似特种材料在其他领域的先进制造。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project, if successful, will demonstrate the application of filtered light to increase the productivity of large scale microalgal cultivation. Traditionally, algae growth has depended on natural solar radiation to be economically viable. However, natural sunlight is not optimized to promote growth and contains spectra (such as UV, or IR) that are detrimental to algal cells. Special lighting sources such as laser and LED to boost beneficial wavelengths to increase algal growth is possible but cost prohibitive. This project utilizes cost effective thin-film material to selectively transmit optimal light spectra from the sunlight to algal cultures. The plan is to apply multiple customized filters to algae cultivation and measure the impact on cell growth and morphology, chemical production, bioreactor performance. The goal of the project is to show decreased energy costs and increased system productivity.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be improving productivity and economics of photosynthetic systems, such as algae and terrestrial horticulture. This project will lead to better understanding of the influence of targeted light on algae and could lead to novel processes for producing fuel and chemicals. Furthermore, increased efficiency of algae growth systems for producing commercially useful products, such as fuel and other chemicals, can lead to economic and environmental benefits. Increased light utilization efficiency introduces cost savings. These improvements lower barriers to entry in the algae sector, which could increase activity in this field. In addition to being beneficial for algal growth, the light filtering technology pioneered in this project could be applied to other plant growth industries, further fueling the worldwide boom in protective agriculture. These wide applications also will promote the advanced manufacturing of similar specialty materials for use in other fields.