SBIR Phase I: Terahertz hydration monitoring for paper manufacturing

SBIR 第一阶段：用于造纸的太赫兹水合监测

• 批准号: 1315846
• 负责人: Rahul Singh
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Farus, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-07-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1315846&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Terahertz; hydration; monitoring

This Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) Phase I project will focus on the design, construction, and verification of a terahertz (THz) hydration mapping system for use in paper manufacturing. THz radiation is defined as the submillimeter region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and is a relatively new and expanding area of research that promises unique imaging capabilities. THz imaging utilizes illumination from the 100 GHz to 10 THz band to generate contrast in targets unavailable to systems operating in the NIR, visible, and UV bands. THz illumination is ideally suited to nondestructive evaluation, security imaging, process control, and medical imaging for a number of reasons, including its nonionizing nature, its wavelength, its achievable broad instantaneous bandwidth, and the large real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant of water at THz frequencies. Paper manufacturing currently lacks hydration metrology with sufficient spatial resolution and water concentration sensitivity to detect local distributions of water in drying paper products, and the current industry standard is costly and has safety concerns due to its associated ionizing radiation. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project spans several fields that rely on careful moisture control, including wood manufacturing, plastics, agriculture, chemical processing, and concrete manufacturing. This proposal will initially focus on the papermaking process, which is a very expensive, capital-intensive process. Both downtime on a paper machine and scrap paper (unwanted paper) are highly valuable. As a result, process control is key, and the ability to remove water quickly and consistently is one of the most important process control variables. Out-of-spec moisture increases downtime, reduces efficiency, increases costs, increases scrap levels, and reduces quality to the consumer. Current process control techniques are insufficient and lead to added cost, increased energy use, and a large amount of wasted paper that must be recycled or land filled. The global paper manufacturing industry is enormous, with over $130 billion in sales and nearly 100 million metric tons of product annually in the U.S. alone. Therefore, improvements in process control can result in significant reductions in global energy use, global wood consumption, and paper costs.

这个小型企业创新研究计划(SBIR)第一阶段项目将专注于用于造纸的太赫兹(THz)水合测绘系统的设计、建造和验证。太赫兹辐射被定义为电磁频谱的亚毫米区域，是一个相对较新和不断扩大的研究领域，有望获得独特的成像能力。太赫兹成像利用从100 GHz到10太赫兹波段的照明，在近红外、可见光和紫外线波段运行的系统无法获得的目标中产生对比度。太赫兹照明非常适合于无损评估、安全成像、过程控制和医学成像，原因有很多，包括其非电离性质、波长、可实现的宽瞬时带宽以及水在太赫兹频率下的介电常数的大实部和虚部。造纸业目前缺乏具有足够空间分辨率和水浓度灵敏度的水合计量方法来检测干燥纸制品中的局部水分分布，并且当前的行业标准成本高昂，并且由于其相关的电离辐射而存在安全问题。这个项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力跨越了几个依赖于仔细的湿度控制的领域，包括木材制造、塑料、农业、化学加工和混凝土制造。这项提议最初将重点放在造纸过程上，这是一个非常昂贵的资本密集型过程。造纸机的停机时间和废纸(不需要的纸)都是非常有价值的。因此，过程控制是关键，快速一致地去除水分的能力是最重要的过程控制变量之一。水分超标增加了停机时间，降低了效率，增加了成本，增加了废品率，并降低了消费者的质量。目前的过程控制技术不足，导致增加了成本，增加了能源消耗，并产生了大量必须回收或填埋的废纸。全球造纸业规模巨大，仅在美国每年的销售额就超过1300亿美元，产品产量近1亿吨。因此，工艺控制的改进可以显著降低全球能源消耗、全球木材消耗和纸张成本。