Developing Digital Technology for Healthcare Relevant Algal Biorenewables Manufacturing

我们的目标是应用我们研究中最近开发的最先进的基于机器学习的数字技术，以促进高价值生物可再生材料（即螺旋藻生物质，叶黄素和花生四烯酸）生产的三种光生产工艺的大规模生产。微藻光生产过程直接将太阳能和CO2转化为与医疗保健相关的商业化合物，被认为是未来工业的有前途的可持续生物技术。预计到2024年，该项目中调查的三种产品的销售额将达到11.3亿英镑。到2023年，全球光生化学品的市场需求预计将达到350亿英镑，年增长率为5.2%。发展数字技术，构建用于有价值生物材料生产的自动化生物制造系统，对英国经济至关重要。英国的生物经济目前价值约2200亿英镑，预计到2030年将翻一番。该部门还提供了500多万个就业岗位。为了保持英国在工业生物技术和数字经济方面的领导地位，开发具有成本效益和自我维持的照片制作工艺至关重要，以减少对石油化学品和化石燃料的依赖。这将巩固英国在“智能”制造和颠覆性生物技术领域的世界领先地位，不仅有利于生产高质量的产品和服务，还能通过制造医疗保健相关化学品和创造新的就业机会来推动国民经济发展。厦门大学的两个研究小组，中国是国家领先的专家，在可持续的照片制作工艺设计，放大和优化方面拥有丰富的行业经验。有一系列的实验设施和光生物反应器，从实验室规模到工业规模，可在他们的小组。我们已经与中国的团体建立了初步合作关系。为确保成功，我们会：（i）开发不同的模型工具，以量化这三个光生产系统，并测试其在过程预测和状态估计方面的准确性;（ii）将先进的在线优化技术融入模型，以形成一个过程监控和优化控制的数字框架，并通过实验室和试验规模的实验验证框架的性能;（3）更新数字框架并将其安装到大规模制造系统中，同时将深度学习技术嵌入到数字框架中，以可视化不同时空空间的过程行为。大部分数字技术都是在曼彻斯特大学开发的，厦门大学也有充足的实验资源和实验设施。这项国际合作提供了一个极好的机会，将英国发明的前沿数字技术与中国开发的先进工业生物技术联系起来，并将首次全面研究使用新型数字技术进行光生产过程实时监测和状态估计，在线优化和控制以及生物反应器可视化。该项目将促进曼彻斯特大学和厦门大学之间的合作，并将使参与该项目的学者和博士生受益匪浅。研究结果将作为证据：i）申请未来的长期合作资助，如牛顿机构链接赠款、高层次外国专家计划和UKRI-中国研发基金; ii）共同指导博士和硕士学生扩展他们在实验和模拟领域的知识; iii）从海外公司和中国留学生理事会获得博士生奖学金; iv）将先进的工业技能引入英国中小企业生物技术公司，以促进国内光生产工艺和工业生物技术的发展。

Our aim is to apply state-of-the-art machine learning based digital technology recently developed in our research to facilitate large scale manufacturing of three photo-production processes for high-value biorenewables (i.e. Spirulina biomass, lutein, and arachidonic acid) production. Microalgal photo-production processes directly convert solar energy and CO2 into healthcare relevant commercial compounds, and are considered as a promising sustainable biotechnology for future industry. Sales of the three products investigated in this project have been estimated to be £1.13 billion by 2024. The global market demand of photo-production based chemicals has been expected to reach £35 billion by 2023, with an annual growth rate of 5.2%.Developing digital technologies to construct automated biomanufacturing systems for valuable biomaterials production is of great importance to the UK's economy. The UK's Bioeconomy is currently worth ~£220 billion and is predicted to double by 2030. This sector also supports over 5 million jobs. In order for the UK to retain its leadership in industrial biotechnology and digital economy, it is crucial to develop cost-effective and self-sustained photo-production processes to reduce dependency on petroleum chemicals and fossil fuels. This will cement the UK as a world-pioneer in 'smart' manufacturing and disruptive biotechnology, with benefits not only in generating high quality products and services, but also boosting the national economy through the manufacture of healthcare relevant chemicals and creation of new job opportunities.The two research groups at Xiamen University, China are national leading experts and have rich industrial experience in sustainable photo-production process design, scale-up, and optimisation. There are a range of experimental facilities and photobioreactors from lab scale to industrial scale available at their groups. We have established initial collaborations with the groups in China. To guarantee success, we will: (i) develop different modelling tools to quantify the three photo-production systems, and test their accuracy for process prediction and state estimation; (ii) integrate advanced online optimisation techniques into the models to form a digital framework for process monitoring and optimal control, and verifies the framework's performance through lab and pilot scale experiments; (3) update the digital framework and install it into the large scale manufacturing systems, meanwhile embed a deep learning technology into the digital framework to visualise process behaviour at different temporal and spatial space. Most of the digital technologies have been developed in the University of Manchester, and there are sufficient experimental resources and experimental facilities at Xiamen University. This international collaboration provides an excellent opportunity to link frontier digital technologies invented in the UK with advanced industrial biotechnologies developed in China, and will initiate the first thorough investigation in using novel digital technologies for photo-production process real-time monitoring and state estimation, online optimisation and control, and bioreactor visualisation. This project will boost collaborations between the University of Manchester and Xiamen University, and will significantly benefit the academics and PhD students involved in this project. Outcome will be used as evidence to: i) apply for future long-term collaborative grants such as the Newton Institutional Links Grants, the High-level Foreign Experts Plan, and the UKRI-China R&D fund; ii) co-supervise PhD and MSc students to extend their knowledge in fields of experimentation and simulation; iii) secure PhD studentships from overseas companies and the China Scholarship Council; iv) bring advanced industrial skills into UK SME biotech companies to facilitate the domestic development of photo-production processes and industrial biotechnologies.