SBIR Phase II: Biological Treatment of Hydrocarbons in Shipboard Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将解决航运业正在制定的新法规，要求减少发动机排放的硫氧化物（SOx）。许多商业洗涤器系统有效地去除了发动机排放物中的SOx，但没有一个是设计用于去除多环芳烃（PAH）的。EnSolve？的方法是开发一种生物和机械相结合的系统，可以从洗涤系统废水中去除多环芳烃。第一阶段研究的结果证实了生物力学方法在减少多环芳烃方面的效果超过99%。这项研究的更广泛影响将是为海运业提供一个具有成本效益、可靠和环保意识的处理系统，用于从世界上清除有毒物质。的海洋。船舶将被要求要么安装洗涤设备，要么需要改用更昂贵的低硫燃料。改用低硫燃料将使目前的燃料成本增加88%以上。与购买低硫燃料相比，使用洗涤器系统的商业船主每艘船每年可节省200万美元的燃料成本。据估计，35，000艘船舶将受到这些法规的影响，为拟议的洗涤器水处理系统带来超过50亿美元的市场机会。正在开发的其它技术利用纯物理分离方法，该方法将污染物从洗涤器水转移到另一种介质（即，过滤器）进行处理。相反，拟议的生物方法是一个再生过程，将显着减少垃圾填埋处理，消耗品，劳动力和责任成本。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will address new regulations being enacted inthe shipping industry requiring Sulfur Oxides (SOx) reduction from engine emissions. Many commercialscrubber systems effectively remove SOx from engine emissions, yet none are designed to remove polycyclicaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). EnSolve?s approach is to develop a combined biological and mechanicalsystem that can remove PAHs from the scrubber system waste water. The results of the Phase I study confirmedthe biomechanical approach was effective in reducing PAHs at rates exceeding 99%.The broader impacts of this research will be to provide the maritime industry with a cost effective, reliable, and environmentally conscious treatment system for removing toxic substances from the world?s oceans. Ships will be required to either install scrubbing equipment or they will need to switch to more costly low sulfur fuels. A switch to low sulfur fuel would increase current fuel costs by over 88%. A commercial ship owner could realize annual savings of $2 million per vessel in fuel costs using a scrubber system compared with purchasing low sulfur fuel. An estimated 35,000 ships will be impacted by these regulations, yielding a market opportunity for the proposed scrubber water treatment system exceeding $5 billion. Other technologies under development utilize pure physical separation methods that transfer the contaminants from the scrubber water to another medium (i.e., filters) for disposal. Conversely, the proposed biological approach is a regenerative process that would significantly reduce landfill disposal, consumable, labor, and liability costs.