Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Addressing Current Issues: Algae are cultivated across diverse environments, including laboratories, industrial facilities, and outdoor ponds, for crucial applications such as biofuel production, nutritional supplements, and environmental sustainability. However, effectively monitoring essential chemicals such as nutrients and extracelular metabolites in the growth medium poses significant challenges. Insufficient monitoring impedes the maintenance of optimal growth conditions, resulting in inconsistent yields and increased operational costs.Project Solution: This project aims to overcome these challenges by developing an advanced sensor capable of real-time monitoring of chemicals in algae growth media. The sensor will transform growth management by providing precise, continuous data on nutrient consumption. This information will enable automated adjustments to growth parameters, ensuring ideal conditions for algae proliferation, thereby boosting productivity and significantly reducing operational costs.Methods and Approaches. The sensor design will leverage a novel waveguide functionalization technique developed in our laboratory. This involves applying advanced coatings to the waveguides to specifically detect and quantify key nutrients and metabolites within the algae growth medium, thereby enhancing sensitivity and selectivity. These functionalized waveguides will integrate into an infrared (IR) setup, where IR radiation interacts with trapped analytes, generating specific absorption bands indicative of chemical presence in the algal environment. Additionally, user-friendly software will be developed to seamlessly integrate with existing process control systems, facilitating intuitive management and monitoring of algae growth. The sensor will undergo rigorous testing and calibration in laboratory settings across diverse environmental conditions. Subsequently, external partners will conduct real-world testing to validate its effectiveness in both laboratory and field settings.Project Goals: The key goals of the project are to create a reliable and efficient sensor that can be used in various algae production settings. By providing real-time data and enabling automated process control, the sensor will help increase algae production yields, ensure consistent growth, and minimize operational costs. This technology will be beneficial across a wide range of research and industrial aquaculture activities, enhancing overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
The focus of this project is the development of a real-time sensor for monitoring chemicals in algae growth medium. The goals of the project are as follows:Development of Key Sensor Elements: This involves creating the essential components of the sensor, particularly an optical waveguide coated with pre-concentration materials. These materials are crucial for enhancing the specificity and sensitivity of the sensor towards detecting key nutrients and extracellular metabolites in the algal growth medium.Sensor Validation in Algal Production: This goal focuses on testing and confirming the sensor's effectiveness in real-world algal production environments. Validation ensures that the sensor performs accurately and reliably in monitoring nutrient uptake and metabolite release in various settings, including laboratory, industrial, and pond-based bioreactors.Enabling Automation and Process Control: By integrating the sensor into algal growth systems, this goal aims to facilitate inline monitoring and automated adjustments to growth conditions. This will help ensure consistent algal growth, increase production yields, and minimize operational costs by allowing timely detection of stress signals and efficient process control.
Project Methods
The methods that will be used in this project are:Infrared Fiberoptic Functionalization: Utilizing a novel infrared fiberoptic functionalization technique for the pre-concentration of analytes on the surface of waveguides, thereby enhancing sensitivity and specificity.Optimizing Functionalization Strategies: Functionalization strategies will be optimized for the selective pre-concentration of a range of analytes to improve sensor sensitivity and selectivity.Optical Setup Optimization: Optimizing the optical setup to reduce the number of optical components and overall sensor cost.Operational Software Interface Design: Design a user-friendly operational software interface and prepare the software for intuitive integration with customers' process controls and AI systems.Third-Party Sensor Evaluation: Conduct third-party sensor evaluations by validating the sensor during algae growth under both laboratory and field conditions, leveraging external partnerships.