SBIR Phase II: Development of Nanoporous Geopolymer Composites as Adsorbent for Arsenic Removal

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的重点是开发一种新型的，环境友好的吸附材料，具有低生命周期成本，用于从水流中去除砷。 所提出的材料解决方案是基于一种新型的纳米多孔地质聚合物复合材料，该复合材料专为该应用而设计，并通过一种获得专利的、可持续的、能源和材料高效的生产工艺制造。 在第二阶段，第一阶段在实验室规模上展示的新培养基的上级性能将在中试规模上得到进一步验证。 预期的结果包括1）新型吸附剂的成功中试生产以验证材料的成本优势; 2）纳米多孔复合材料在中试规模下的上级性能的成功验证;（3）通过使用低成本的前驱体进一步改善产品成本。为环境修复工业提供了一类新的材料和新的平台技术，其可以扩展到去除其它水污染物。 该新型材料将用于替代现有的吸附剂介质，并将为住宅和商业系统提供性能/成本效益，同时具有额外的环境优势;（2）能够开发目前由于美国和发展中国家砷含量高而无法使用的新淡水资源;以及（3）通过广泛的关键清洁技术应用（包括能源效率）来改造纳米多孔材料生产技术（绝缘和催化剂）、能量产生和能量存储。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on the development of a novel, environment-friendly adsorbent material with low life-cycle cost for the removal of Arsenic from the water stream. The proposed material solution is based on a novel nanoporous geopolymer composite designed specifically for this application and manufactured via a patented, sustainable, and energy- and materials-efficient production process. During Phase II, the superior performance of the new media demonstrated at lab scale in Phase I will be further validated at the pilot scale. The anticipated results include 1) successful pilot production of the novel adsorbent to validate the cost advantages of materials; 2) successful validation of superior performance of the nanoporous composite at a pilot testing scale; and 3) further improvement of the product cost by using lower cost precursors.The broader impacts of this research are (1) providing to the environmental remediation industry a new class of materials and novel platform technology that may be expanded to removing other water contaminants. The novel material will be offered to replace the existing sorbent media and will provide performance/cost benefits for residential and commercial systems with additional environmental advantages; (2) enabling the development of new fresh water sources currently unusable due to high Arsenic content in the US and developing countries; and (3) transforming the nanoporous materials production technology with a broad spectrum of critical clean tech applications, including energy efficiency (insulation and catalyst), energy generation, and energy storage.