BIOREACTOR APPARATUS, BIOREACTOR SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR GROWING LIGHT ENERGY DEPENDANT BIOLOGICAL SPECIES

• US 20100267126A1
• Filed: 11/17/2008
• Published: 10/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Philips Lighting Holding BV (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Peeters, Henricus Marie, Van Oers, Denis Joseph Carel, Jacobs, Joseph Hendrik Anna Maria
• Application Number:
  US12/742,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20100267126A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 435/292.100
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 61/10 of fish
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 61/20 of zooplankton, e.g. water fleas or Rotatoria
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 63/00 Receptacles for live fish, e.g. aquaria keepnets or other containers for keeping captured fish A01K97/20; Terraria
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 63/003 Aquaria; Terraria A01K63/04, A01K63/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 63/06 Arrangements for heating or lighting in, or attached to, receptacles for live fish
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 21/02 Photobioreactors culturing algae A01G33/00, A01H4/001, C12N1/12
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 23/18 Open ponds; Greenhouse type or underground installations
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 23/58 Reaction vessels connected in series or in parallel combinations of bioreactors with other apparatus, C12M43/00
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 31/10 by light emitting elements located inside the reactor, e.g. LED or OLED
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 37/00 Means for sterilizing, maintaining sterile conditions or avoiding chemical or biological contamination C12M23/38 takes precedence; filtration in general and filters per se B01D24/00-B01D41/00; autoclaves B01J3/04; treatment of microorganisms with electrical or wave energy C12N13/00

Abstract

The invention relates to a bioreactor apparatus (1) for growing of biological species (2), comprising at least one basin device (3) defining a first habitat (4a) for a first species (2a), and a first lighting device (5a) having one light emitting solid-state lighting source (6), adapted for the first species (2a) by emitting light (L), wherein the solid-state lighting source (6) illuminates said habitat (4) using light energy emitted from the solid-state lighting source (6), wherein the bioreactor apparatus (1) comprises a second habitat (4b), adapted for a second species (2b). The invention further relates to a bioreactor system (20) comprising two bioreactor apparatus (1a,1b), one adopted as an aquatic ecoregion, one adopted as a terrestrial ecoregion, both combined to form a complex artificial ecoregion and a method for growing light energy dependant biological species (2) in one bioreactor apparatus (1), comprising: illuminating a first species (1) in a first habitat (4a) by a first lighting device (5a), transferring the grown first species (2a) to a successive habitat (4b, 4c, 4d, . . . ), separated from the previous habitat (4), via a connection system (7), illuminating a successive species (2b,2c, . . . ) in said successive habitat (4b,4c,4d, . . . ) by a successive lighting device (5b,5c, . . . ), and repeating the steps transferring and illuminating until the desired species (2) has grown to an optimum.

Claims

1. A bioreactor apparatus (1) for growing of light energy dependant biological species (2),

comprising at least one basin device (3) defining a first habitat (4a) for accommodating a first species (2a), and

a first lighting device (5a) having at least one light emitting solid-state lighting source (6), adapted for the first species (2a) by emitting light (L),

wherein the solid-state lighting source (6) illuminates said habitat (4) using light energy emitted from the solid-state lighting source (6) to said first species (2a) characterized in that,

the bioreactor apparatus (1) comprises at least a second habitat (4b), adapted for a second species (2b), for growing at least two different kinds of species (2a,2b) in one bioreactor system.

2. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to claim 1,

characterized in that the apparatus (1) comprises at least two basin devices (3a,3b,3c) having at least one habitat (4) each.

3. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to claim 1 or 2,

characterized in that the apparatus (1) comprises at least one basin device (3) provided with at least two habitats (4).

4. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the habitats (4) are arranged successively, adopted for successive species (2) of a food chain, wherein the arrangement corresponds to the stage of food chain the species (2) comply to, for creating an artificial food chain.

5. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that a first habitat (4a) is adopted for housing species (2a) of a primarily stage of a food chain, comprising primary producers and/or autotrophs.

6. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that a second habitat (4b) is adopted for housing species (2b) of a secondary stage of a food chain, comprising consumers and/or heterotrophs.

7. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that a third habitat (4c) is adopted for housing species (2c) of a third stage of a food chain, comprising heterotrophs.

8. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that a last habitat (4d) is adopted for housing waste of heterotrophs the like for recycling said waste.

9. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the habitats (4) are linked via a connection system (7) having locking means, for connecting and separating the habitats (4).

10. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the habitats (4) are defined at least partly by separating walls (8).

11. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the solid-state lighting source (6) comprises at least one LED (9), especially one inorganic LED, one OLED, one laser diode, one optical conductor (10), connected to the LED, and/or one radiating structure (11), connected to the optical conductor (10).

12. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the LED (9), especially said inorganic LED, said OLED, said laser diode, said optical conductor (10), connected to the LED, and/or said radiating structure (11), connected to the optical conductor (10) is/are integrated in said separating wall(s) (8).

13. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the said radiating structure (11) is arranged at a surface of said separating wall(s) (8), facing to the corresponding habitat (4), for illuminating said habitat (4) and its contents.

14. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the bioreactor apparatus (1) further comprises a controller (12) for at least controlling said lighting device (5), such that each solid-state lighting source (6) emits light (L) of a specific spectrum and/or a specific intensity corresponding to the optimum growth of the related species (2).

15. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the bioreactor apparatus (1) further comprises a cooling system (13) for cooling at least partly the lighting device (5).

16. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the cooling system (13) is adopted as an internal cooling system, using the contents of the corresponding habitat (4) for cooling.

17. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the cooling system (13) is adopted as an external cooling system, having conduits for transferring heat outside the contents of the corresponding habitat (4) including the separating walls (8).

18. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the bioreactor apparatus (1) is adopted as an aquatic ecoregion, especially for forming a fish farm, mussel or clam farm, lobster farm and the like.

19. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the bioreactor apparatus (1) is adopted as a terrestrial ecoregion, especially for forming a green house.

20. A bioreactor apparatus (1) according to any preceding claims,

characterized in that the bioreactor apparatus (1) comprises emitting devices as UV-LEDs, UV-OLEDs, pulsed UV-LEDs, pulsed UV-OLEDs, and the like, for the treatment of diseases, infections and other optimum growth preventing effects including preventing growth of unwanted species, providing an optimized spectral composition, pulse frequencies, and/or day and night cycle light for the corresponding species.

21. A bioreactor system (20) comprising at least two bioreactor apparatuses (1a,1b), one adopted as an aquatic ecoregion, one adopted as a terrestrial ecoregion, both combined to form a complex artificial ecoregion.

22. A method for growing light energy dependant biological species (2) in at least one bioreactor apparatus (1), the method comprising:

illuminating a first species (1) in a first habitat (4a) by a first lighting device (5a) emitting light (L) having a first spectrum,

transferring the grown first species (2a) to a successive habitat (4b, 4c, 4d, . . . ), separated from the previous habitat (4), via a connection system (7),

illuminating a successive species (2b,2c, . . . ) in said successive habitat (4b,4c,4d, . . . ) by a successive lighting device (5b,5c, . . . ) emitting light (L) having a different spectrum to the light (L) of the previous lighting device (5), and

repeating the steps transferring and illuminating until the desired species (2) has grown to an optimum.