Reactor Illumination Plates for Microorganism Cultivation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional reactors with external light sources for cultivating photosensitive microorganisms suffer from inefficient illumination due to photon absorption and reflection by portholes, leading to suboptimal light distribution and reduced growth efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A reactor design with light sources integrated onto rotating counter-blades within the tank, ensuring better illumination coverage and minimizing modifications to the tank structure, allowing for a higher illumination surface-to-volume ratio and flexible configuration options.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If light sources are installed outside the tank with portholes, then the tank structure is simpler, but illumination efficiency is reduced due to photon absorption and reflection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the light source with the internal tank structure by integrating LED strips directly into the cylindrical tank wall, eliminating the need for separate external light sources and portholes. This combination resolves the contradiction by maintaining structural simplicity while eliminating photon loss through porthole interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an optical diffuser as an intermediary layer between the LED light sources and the culture medium. This diffuser evenly distributes light throughout the tank interior, preventing direct exposure to intense light sources while maximizing illumination efficiency and eliminating the need for reflective portholes.
2Loss of energy
If light sources are placed inside the tank, then illumination efficiency is improved, but the tank structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the lighting function directly into the tank wall structure by embedding LED strips within the cylindrical tank body. This integration approach improves illumination efficiency while avoiding the complexity of separate external lighting systems with portholes, as the tank structure itself serves as the light delivery mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The cylindrical tank structure serves multiple functions: it contains the culture medium, provides structural support, and acts as the housing for integrated LED light sources. This multi-functionality reduces overall system complexity while achieving high illumination efficiency, as the same structure performs both containment and lighting delivery.
3Area of stationary object
If multiple portholes are added to increase illumination surface, then light distribution is improved, but the tank loses more photons through absorption and reflection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates the porthole concept entirely by integrating light sources directly into the tank wall. This provides continuous illumination across the entire tank interior surface area without the photon losses associated with porthole interfaces, as light is generated within the tank volume rather than entering through discrete openings.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from providing illumination through discrete two-dimensional portholes to distributing light throughout the three-dimensional tank volume using integrated LED strips. This volumetric illumination approach maximizes the effective illumination surface area throughout the entire culture medium without the limitations and losses of porthole-based systems.
4Illumination intensity
If powerful light sources are used to compensate for photon loss, then illumination intensity is maintained, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses optical diffusers as intermediaries to evenly distribute light from moderate-power LED sources throughout the tank volume. This eliminates the need for high-intensity point sources, as the diffused light provides uniform illumination across the entire culture medium, maintaining adequate light intensity while consuming significantly less energy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional high-power incandescent or halogen light sources with energy-efficient LED technology. LEDs consume far less energy to produce the same or greater illumination intensity when integrated directly into the tank, eliminating the need to compensate for photon losses through excessive energy consumption.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration enhances light distribution and growth efficiency by maximizing the illumination surface area, reducing the need for powerful light sources, and simplifying maintenance while maintaining a high illumination power per unit volume, even in larger tanks.
Implementation Method 1
a thickness allowing said light to be diffused towards the interior of the tank
Implementation Method 2
an assembly rotating around an axis intended to ensure mixing of this mass to be treated
Data Source
Figure 1~3
AI summary
A reactor 10 comprises a tank 11 intended to contain a mass to be treated, for example formed from microorganisms, and provided with an assembly 12 that rotates about an axis Z-Z intended to ensure the stirring of this mass to be treated, and a plurality of illumination sources 13 intended to assist the treatment of this mass, said tank having an inner wall to which there are fixed plates 14 of which the planes are oriented towards the axis of the rotating assembly and parallel to same, so as to prevent the formation of a vortex within the mass to be treated under the action of the rotating assembly; said illumination sources are carried by said plates, being encapsulated, with at least the part of said plates that carries them, in a material that is compatible with the mass to be treated and in a thickness that allows said light to be diffused into the tank. This configuration can be transferred to a different scale, while keeping the ratio of the illumination surface relative to the volume of the tank approximately constant.