Photodynamic control of contaminating micro-organisms in photobioreactors

藻类作为从塑料和生物燃料到营养品、颜料和药品等各种工业原料的来源，前景广阔。然而，生产成本仍然是阻碍藻类发挥其作为工业原料潜力的一个障碍。一个问题是藻类培养物被其他微生物污染，这些微生物与藻类竞争或具有致病性。消毒控制往往昂贵、不实际或无效。这个项目采用创新的方法来研究光动力控制污染微生物的可能性。利用光来控制不需要的微生物并不新鲜，但LED和光子技术的发展意味着可以采用新的方法来设计光生物反应器，使它们能够更好地处理污染的微生物，同时降低建造和操作的成本。该项目的成功将使Xanthella在光生物反应器的设计或藻类的研究和工业生产方面具有相当大的竞争优势，从而增加销售和出口。

Algae hold great promise as the source of a wide range of industrial feedstocks ranging from plastics and biofuels to nutraceuticals, pigments and pharmaceuticals. Production costs, however, remain a barrier to algae reaching their potential as industrial feedstocks. One problem is contamination of algal cultures by other micro-organisms which outcompete the algae or are pathogenic. Disinfection controls are often expensive, impractical at scale or ineffective. This project takes the innovative approach of investigating the possibility of photodynamic control of contaminant micro-organisms. The use of light to control unwanted micro-organisms is not new but developments in LED and photonic technologies mean that new approaches can be made to the design of photobioreactors that will make them better at dealing with contaminating micro-organisms while being cheaper to build and operate. Success in the project will give Xanthella considerable competitive advantage in the design of photobioreactors or research and industrial production of algae leading to increased sales and exports.