Team:UMaryland/Proof Of Concept

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Proof of Concept

Due to COVID-19 related shipping delays and financial constraints, we were unable to obtain the parts to fully construct our bioreactor. However, we still want to be able to be able to prove our bioreactor concept and describe how it would look and function.

To accomplish this we took a two-pronged approach:

  1. We modeled the uptake of phosphorus in the bioreactor in MATLAB to see how long we would need to run the bioreactor to obtain maximum/optimal uptake.
  2. We made a full-scale CAD model with a bill of materials to further show our design and to serve as a template for how to build the design.

Modeling the Reaction

Introduction

In order to provide a comprehensive implementation plan, time taken for optimal phosphorus absorption was calculated for various filter geometries.

Equations

To model phosphorus intake, we considered how the rate changes over time as phosphorus is absorbed from the environment in the following equation.

Assumptions

We are considering that the water with phosphorus is uniformly distributed in the bioreactor, and the well-stirred reactor is keeping the phosphorus in contact with all sides of the filter. The Phosphorus in the cell increase linearly as time increases.

Variable Explanations

Some of these values are derived from basic concentrations, which are stated below.

  • Concentration of Bacterial Cells = 0.67E8 cfu/mL
  • Max Phosphorous Per Cell = 4E-7 g/mL
  • Molar Mass of Phosphorous = 94.9714
  • Volume and Surface were calculated using traditional volume formulas of the given shape


Results

Design 1: 12 Columns

Design 2: Single Circular Filter Covering Internal Surface

Design 3: X Shaped filter consisting of 4 Rectangles

Conclusion

Design 2 is the best approach due to its clearance time for filtering out the phosphorus. This model confirms our previous hand-calculations of SA/Volume Ratio, as seen in the Engineering page. We can also expect that our bioreactor will take approximately 4 hours to filter all the phosphorous in the water. However, this could be cutoff at an earlier threshold, somewhere around the point of inflection, due to diffusion limiting the uptake of phosphorus by the beads.

CAD Models and Bill of Materials

Code for First Design:

The code for the first design is shown here. The only difference between this and the other code is the calculation for the volumes of filters would be different.

Attributions

Modeling based off Purdue iGEM 2016