I-Corps Teams: Integration of Non-Equilibrium Gliding Arc Plasma into Hydroponic Produce Growth Systems for Improved Crop Health and Added Nutrients

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是植物纯度的新标准，它可以为全球数百万消费者带来巨大的积极健康后果。冷等离子体水净化和富集技术，在我们提出的水培系统中使用，可以扩展到农业的其他领域，因为等离子体中产生的抗菌化学物质迅速杀死病原体，对植物和动物都是安全的。这项技术的潜在好处可以帮助垂直农民消除世界各地城市中心的粮食短缺挑战，由太阳能提供动力。考虑到人类面临的农业可持续性和水资源保护问题迫在眉睫、意义重大且日益加剧，这项技术有可能在帮助保护和维持我们所知的地球上的生命方面发挥重要作用。灌溉所需水量的减少和用等离子体处理的植物产量的增加-处理过的水还支持等离子体处理在各种农业和再造林工作中的应用。最后，该公司的一个雄心勃勃的目标是在电力以外的资源极其有限的环境中实施这项技术，比如长期的太空任务。这个我--Corps项目将使公司更好地了解公司潜在客户的需求，以及等离子技术如何为商业农业市场提供解决方案，同时为水培农业的成员提供技术见解这些国家的农业生产和发展都为大幅度改善其现有农业系统和做法提供了机会。通过这些等离子体技术的商业化努力，该团队设想为现代农民提供更大，更健康，更可持续的作物收成，同时减少与当前生产方法相关的潜在有害化学添加剂，环境破坏和浪费。目前实验室规模的研究成果非常有前途，但是，需要对市场进行详细的分析，并与专业水培农民、行业专家、供应商和客户进行访谈，以验证全面的商业化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is a new standard of plant purity, which can have tremendous positive health consequences for the millions of worldwide consumers. The cold plasma water purification and enrichment technology, utilized in our proposed hydroponic system, can extend to other areas of agriculture as the antimicrobial chemicals produced in plasma rapidly kill pathogens and are safe for both plants and animals. The potential benefits stemming from this technology can help vertical farmers to eradicate food scarcity challenges in urban centers all over the world, powered by the sun's energy. Given the imminent, significant, and accelerating problems of agricultural sustainability and water conservation facing humanity, this technology has the potential to play a significant role in helping to preserve and sustain life on Earth as we know it. Additionally, the decrease in water volume needed for irrigation and the increased yield of plants treated with plasma-treated water also supports applications of plasma treatment in various farming and reforestation efforts. Finally, an ambitious goal for the company is to implement this technology in environments where resources other than electricity are extremely limited, such as long-term space missions.This I-Corps project will allow the company to better understand the needs of the company's potential customers and how plasma technology can offer solutions to the commercial agricultural market while providing technological insight to members of the hydroponic agriculture industry and opportunities for significant improvements to their existing agricultural systems and practices. Through these plasma technology commercialization efforts, the team envisions facilitating bigger, healthier, and more sustainable crop harvests for the modern farmer, while also reducing the volume of potentially harmful chemical additives, environmental damage, and wastefulness associated with current production methods. Current lab-scale research results are very promising, however, detailed analysis of the market and interviews with professional hydroponic farmers, industry experts, vendors, and customers are required to validate full-scale commercialization.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.