Engineered Biofilms with Modular Functionality for Persistent and Survivable Naval Platforms
Abstract
Maintaining hulls free from biofouling is essential for operational readiness, but presents amajor financial burden to the Navy. The US Navy produces greenhouse gas emissionsequating to around 190 million automobiles, or all cars in the USA combined, due to the fuelused on operations; fuel usage is increased significantly by the presence of biofouling. Atpresent, biofouling costs the Navy ~$56 m per annum for the Arleigh Burke class of DDG-51destroyers and between $180 260 m across the fleet. If cost-effective and environmentallybenign technologies can be developed to control fouling, therefore, their impact would besubstantial. All current hull coatings have drawbacks and provide incomplete protection. Ifthe concept of a synthetic chemical coating is abandoned, however, and a living coating isinstead considered, many of the problems associated with contemporary coatings vanish, andopportunities arise. A living coating could heal itself after damage, act as a sensor and couldbe automatically released from the surface on demand via self-degradation. It couldeliminate the need to re-coat, being applied as a pro-biotic prior to launch, and producebioactive compounds to prevent biofouling. This proposal outlines a technical approachtoward entirely novel, bio-based, living coatings for Naval platforms. Ultimately, anengineered bacterial community will be applied that can be controlled to produce a bespokemultifunctional film. The film will protect vessel hulls, deliver disruptive capability to Navaloperations, reduce maintenance costs and provide advanced capabilities for which complexmaterials, processes or electronic systems are presently required. The engineered bacterialcommunity forming the film will be stable, controllable, resistant to invasion andreplacement, and will provide a chassis for future functional modules. Technologydevelopment in the initial 9-months will focus primarily on film stability (in terms ofcomposition and mechanical properties) and antifouling capability, underpinned by recentinnovations in the field of synthetic biology, or bio-based engineering/design.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 19, 2020
- Source ID
- N629092012086
Entities
People
- Nick Aldred
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Essex