SBIR Phase II: Electroconcentration, Separation, and Rupture of Bioalgae for Fuel Production

SBIR 第二阶段：用于燃料生产的生物藻类的电浓缩、分离和破裂

• 批准号: 1058465
• 负责人: Heather McCrabb
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: FARADAY TECHNOLOGY, INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-01-15 至 2012-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1058465&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Electroconcentration; Separation

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses the need for innovative approaches to harvesting oil from bio-algae, specifically to dewater the bio-algae and recycle the processed algae stream for reuse. The subject innovation will facilitate the development of an economical alternative to current technologies, and result in a more favorable application of bio-fuels to the marketplace. Current dewatering technologies (e.g., centrifugation and chemical flocculation) are energy intensive and require chemical additives that can contaminate the oil, resulting in prohibitively high costs to concentrate bio-algae for fuel production. The Phase II program objective is to develop, scale up and integrate the FARADAYIC ElectroConcentration and ElectroFlotation Processes with Harvesting, Dewatering and Drying (HDD) technology being developed by our strategic partner, Algaeventure Systems (AVS), to quickly and efficiently dewater bio-algae.The broader impacts of this research are in the energy and cost savings that will result from the innovative dewatering process. This technology will enable a cost effective, energy efficient, nearly carbon-neutral source of bio-fuel that does not compete with food crops. Bio-fuel technology is anticipated to have a significant environmental impact by greatly reducing carbon dioxide emissions (e.g. from power plants) by storing the carbon dioxide as lipids. This technology would find applicability in other areas of the algae cultivation industry (bio-plastics, dyes, pharmaceuticals, etc.) and also result in an improved understanding of electric field effects on algae concentration processes. Finally, this project provides opportunities for teachers and undergraduates to gain research experience through the NSF RET/REU programs.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目解决了从生物藻类中收获石油的创新方法的需求，特别是对生物藻类进行生物降解和回收处理后的藻类流进行再利用。本主题的创新将促进现有技术的经济替代品的开发，并导致生物燃料更有利地应用于市场。目前的脱水技术（例如，离心和化学絮凝）是能量密集型的，并且需要可能污染油的化学添加剂，导致浓缩用于燃料生产的生物藻类的成本过高。第二阶段计划的目标是开发、扩大和整合法拉达伊克电浓缩和电浮选工艺与我们的战略合作伙伴Algaeventure Systems（AVS）正在开发的收获、脱水和干燥（HDD）技术，以快速有效地去除生物藻类。这项研究的更广泛影响是创新脱水工艺将带来的能源和成本节约。这项技术将使生物燃料的成本效益，能源效率，几乎碳中性的来源，不与粮食作物竞争。生物燃料技术通过将二氧化碳储存为脂质，大大减少二氧化碳排放（例如发电厂的排放），预计将对环境产生重大影响。该技术将适用于藻类养殖行业的其他领域（生物塑料、染料、制药等）并且还导致对电场对藻类浓缩过程的影响的更好的理解。最后，这个项目为教师和本科生提供了通过NSF RET/REU项目获得研究经验的机会。