I just spied a new patent application by David Bayless, professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio University in Athens, US, for a bioreactor fitted with optical fibres for channeling sunlight into the reactor. Something of this nature would be enormously beneficial to microalgae — a high yield biofuel-producing crop that’s sometimes limited with access to sunlight — especially if they’re being stored inside. Here’s how Bayless plans to remedy that:
“A bioreactor apparatus in which a container has sidewalls, a floor and a ceiling defining a chamber that contains a slurry of water, nutrients and photosynthetic microorganisms. A plurality of optical fibers, each of which has a first end disposed outside the chamber and a second end in the mixture. A light collector spaced from the container has light incident on it and focuses the light onto the first ends of the plurality of optical fibers, thereby permitting the light to be conveyed into the mixture to promote photosynthesis.”
With announcements this week that Virgin airlines will be using a mixed biofuel based on algae for one of their planes, we may see a new industry of commercialization for the green stuff. Check out Bayless’s patent for more info.
