I-Corps: Commercialization of a Novel, Low-Energy Homogenizer Technology for Algal Oil Extraction

I-Corps：用于藻油提取的新型低能耗均质器技术的商业化

• 批准号: 1450427
• 负责人: Cecil Higgs
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1450427&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Commercialization; Novel; Low; Energy

Biodiesel is a renewable energy source that can be used as a drop-in fuel supplement and replacement for petroleum diesel. Though many biodiesel production facilities have been constructed, increases in the cost of the feedstock oil (such as soy oil), from which some biodiesel is made, have created a significant market need for a low-cost oil alternative that is suitable for biodiesel production. This team plans to meet this need by using oil extracted from algae. Algae are small photosynthetic microorganisms which convert sunlight into oil and other high-value products. Algae can produce more oil per acre than any other conventional biodiesel feedstock and does not compete with food production. Though others have looked into producing algae oil on a large scale, their efforts were largely unsuccessful due to processing costs when extracting oil from algae. This team has developed a technology to extract oil from algae at a low cost.The proposed innovation is a novel technique to rupture and extract oil from algae cells that has widespread application to the dairy/food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. The technology uses knowledge about the biomechanical response of algae cells which is input into an in-house computational framework that optimizes the design of our system to extract oil from algae. The oil will then be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production. The technology can also be used as a low-energy homogenization device which can serve the dairy/food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. The proposed project is transformative as the approach described in this proposal aims to revolutionize algal oil extraction based on first-principles understanding of fluid mechanics, cellular mechanics, and particle-fluid interactions.

生物柴油是一种可再生能源，可用作液化柴油的倒入燃料补充剂。 尽管已经建造了许多生物柴油生产设施，但原料油的成本（例如大豆石油）的成本增加，从中制造了一些生物柴油，这对适合生物柴油生产的低成本油替代品产生了巨大的市场需求。该团队计划通过使用藻类提取的油来满足这种需求。藻类是小的光合微生物，可将阳光转化为石油和其他高价值产品。藻类比任何其他常规的生物柴油原料都可以每英亩产生更多的油，并且不与食品生产竞争。尽管其他人研究了大规模生产藻类油，但由于从藻类中提取油时的加工成本，他们的努力在很大程度上没有成功。该团队开发了一项技术，以低成本的价格从藻类中提取石油。拟议的创新是一种新颖的技术，可从藻类细胞中破裂和提取油，这些技术广泛应用于乳制品/食品，制药和化妆品行业。该技术使用有关藻类细胞生物力学反应的知识，该知识输入到内部计算框架中，该框架优化了我们系统的设计以从藻类中提取油。然后，该油将用作生物柴油生产的原料。该技术还可以用作低能均质化设备，可以为乳制品/食品，制药和化妆品行业提供服务。该提案中所述的方法旨在基于对流体力学，细胞力学和颗粒液体相互作用的第一原理的理解，旨在彻底改变藻类油的提取。