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）第一阶段项目如果成功，将展示过滤光的应用，以提高大规模微藻培养的生产力。传统上，藻类生长依赖于自然太阳辐射，以实现经济可行性。 然而，自然阳光并没有优化以促进生长，并且包含对藻类细胞有害的光谱（如UV或IR）。特殊的光源，如激光和LED，以提高有益的波长，以增加藻类生长是可能的，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的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和提高系统生产力，该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是提高光合系统的生产力和经济性，如藻类和陆地园艺。该项目将导致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，用于生产商业上有用的产品（例如燃料和其他化学品）的藻类生长系统的提高的效率可以导致经济和环境效益。提高的光利用效率带来了成本节约。这些改进降低了进入藻类部门的门槛，这可能会增加这一领域的活动。除了有利于藻类生长外，该项目开创的滤光技术还可以应用于其他植物生长行业，进一步推动全球保护性农业的繁荣。这些广泛的应用也将促进其他领域使用的类似特种材料的先进制造。

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.