I-Corps: Commercialization Feasibility Study of Mesocale Planar Heliostats

该项目计划进一步开发一种有机农业技术，该技术有可能利用面向农民的服务模式来处理土壤和水。对定日镜缩放的探索表明，减小反射镜的尺寸可以导致减小的重量和用于快速操纵聚焦光斑的高速控制。反射镜和用于移动反射镜的现成致动器的缩放表明平面的中尺度定日镜是可能的。这些平面定日镜能够附接到垂直表面，可以远程致动，并且具有低质量，以便以低成本容易地安装在移动的平台上。定日镜技术的移动性使人们能够将集中的太阳能能力运输到任何地方，从而实现太阳能热应用的基于服务的模型。该项目的一个目标是确定聚光太阳能热系统的实用程度。这将通过研究在运动中，在不同的太阳光照下，以安全的方式可以实现的最大功率通量来完成。UV和IR组分的使用提供了一种不仅使用纯粹的热机制来处理农业材料如土壤，而且使用光化学方法的方式。对这些方法的理解将为可持续农业提供一个范例。利用太阳能集中阳光清洁土壤的潜力，不仅可以减少能源的使用，而且可以减少农药对健康和环境的有害影响。这项工作旨在消除农药，减少土壤中致癌化学物质的污染，使食品对农场工人和消费者都更安全。该项目旨在消除使用溴甲烷等气体杀虫剂，溴甲烷是一种强烈的绿色室内气体，并降低臭氧消耗率。通过减少液体杀虫剂的使用，以及用于制造它们的相关化石燃料，这项技术将减少释放的二氧化碳，减少农业对全球变暖的影响。即使在阳光不足的地区，也可以利用阳光进行土壤消毒，从而提高粮食产量，同时降低生产成本。该团队估计，水果生产成本将下降15-20%，以实现更低的水果供应成本。

This project plans to further develop an organic agriculture technology that has the potential to treat soil and water using a service-based model for farmers. Exploration of scaling of heliostats indicates that reducing the size of mirrors can lead to reduced weight and high speed control for fast maneuvering of focus spot. The scaling of mirrors and off- the-shelve actuators to move mirrors indicates that mesoscale heliostats that are planar is possible. These planar heliostats are capable of being attached to vertical surfaces, can be remotely actuated, and have low mass for easy installation on mobile platforms at a low cost. The mobility of the heliostat technology enables one to transport concentrated solar capability to anywhere, and hence enable a service based model for solar-thermal applications. An objective of the project is to determine the degree to which concentrated solar thermal systems can be useful. This will be done by studying the maximum power flux that can be achieved in the face of motion, under varying solar illumination, and in a safe way. The use of both UV and IR components presents a way to not only use purely thermal mechanism to treat agricultural material like soil, but also to use photo-chemical approaches. The understanding of these approaches would enable a paradigm for sustainable agriculture.The potential to use solar concentrated sunlight to clean soils, can not only reduce the energy use, but also reduce the health and environmental harmful effects of pesticides. This work will aim at eliminating pesticides, leading to reduced contamination of soil with cancer-causing chemicals, making food safer both for farm-workers and consumers. The project aims to eliminate the use of gaseous pesticides such as methyl-bromide, which is a strong green- house gas, and reduce the rate of ozone depletion. By reducing the use of liquid pesticides, and the associated fossil-fuel used to make them, this technology will reduce the released CO2, decreasing the effect of farming on global warming. By enabling soil-sterilization using the sun, even in areas where sun is not bright enough, food yield can be increased while reducing cost of production. The team estimates that the cost of fruit production would drop by 15-20% percent to enable lower cost fruit availability.