Conformal coatings to enhance biocarriers for rapid-startup of biofilm reactors

The resupply of essential resources is a critical constraint for long-duration space missions. Biomanufacturing, employing microbes to recycle life support system waste into usable materials, presents a viable solution. Biofilm reactors, which cultivate microbes on biocarrier supports like plastic or membranes, are central to this approach. However, a significant hurdle is the extended startup time required for these reactors. In terrestrial wastewater treatment plants, startup can take weeks or months, a prohibitive timeframe in space, especially during necessary reconfigurations or reactor failures. GVD Corporation, partnering with Boston University's el Microbial Integration Group (elMIG), aims to evaluate the feasibility and design of a rapid-startup biofilm bioreactor. GVD will develop specialized coating chemistries to accelerate microbial proliferation, employing high-throughput screening methods facilitated by elMIG's expertise. Subsequently, elMIG will characterize acetogen biofilm growth dynamics, resource needs, and productivity, providing critical data for GVD's prototype bioreactor design. This technology has applications beyond NASA, including advanced coating chemistries for enhancing wastewater treatment systems and biofilm reactors for pharmaceutical production.

The proposed work is directly relevant to the call to attract innovations that harness the efficiency of biofilm biomanufacturing, by addressing the gaps in the knowledge in design of biofilm bioreactors for manufacturing purposes. Designed bioreactors have the potential to reduce the need for resupply in extended missions and to facilitate waste processing to recover reusable materials. Furthermore, this can enhance the robustness of life support systems and reduce payload weight, by enabling in mission biofilm reactor startup and re-start. Our rapid microbe startup coatings offer significant commercial potential for wastewater treatment biofilm reactors, where current startup times are measured in weeks or months. Additionally, these coatings can benefit pharmaceutical companies utilizing microbes for production, enabling enhanced control and regulation of microbial proliferation.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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