I-Corps: Commercialization of Novel Materials for Agricultural Ammonia Filtration

AmmoniaShield旨在通过一种简单有效的新型吸附剂技术来改变家禽业。在传统禽舍环境中饲养家禽的最困难的问题之一是由鸟排泄的尿酸产生的高浓度氨气。由于家禽被紧紧地挤在禽舍内，禽舍内的氨浓度会迅速上升到危险水平，导致死亡率增加，生长速度下降，对疾病爆发的易感性增加。该项目背后的动机是将最初为人类呼吸保护而开发的吸附剂技术转移到农业行业。成功的技术转让将大大改善目前的氨缓解方法，这些方法要么依赖于房屋通风，产生通风和供暖成本，要么依赖于金属盐，其中许多具有腐蚀性，难以重新施用，并被归类为农药。在家禽环境中有效的氨过滤将消除外部通风和加热成本的显著费用。提出的创新包括一类新型的碳质材料，称为碳化物衍生碳（CDC），用于吸附氨。合成CDC的方法包括用氯气从特定的金属碳化物中选择性地蚀刻出金属原子。我们的团队已经开发出特定的蚀刻条件，以在材料中留下定制的金属种类和非常严格定义的孔径分布。由格鲁吉亚理工学院的这个研究小组开发的特定的正在申请专利的CDC是专门设计用于捕获氨的，因为它的高表面积和活性金属位点被调整为最大化与氨的相互作用。该团队进一步开发了该技术，以使用更低成本的前体来改善氨吸附，旨在实现真正的商业可行性。这两代产品都已暂时提交给美国专利局。该项目的目标是确定最适合我们技术的方法，以及对农业现有方法的最大好处。与目前的氨缓解技术相反，拟议的材料可以安装到家禽舍内现有的内部空气循环系统中。与目前用于氨减排的多种方法相反，非侵入性、低成本、基于过滤的方法将对肉类生产行业产生变革性影响。

AmmoniaShield aims to transform the poultry industry through a simple and effective new adsorbent technology. One of the most difficult problems raising poultry in a traditional poultry house environment is the large concentration of ammonia gas resulting from ureic acid excreted from the birds. As birds are tightly packed within a poultry house; ammonia concentrations inside can quickly rise to dangerous levels resulting in increased mortality, decreased growth, and increased susceptibility to disease outbreaks. The motivation behind this project is to transfer an adsorbent technology originally developed for human respiratory protection to the agricultural industry. Successful technology transfer would greatly improve current ammonia mitigation methods that either rely on house ventilation, incurring ventilation and heating costs, or metal salts, many of which are corrosive, difficult to reapply, and classified as pesticides. Effective ammonia filtration within a poultry environment would remove the significant expense of external ventilation and heating costs. The proposed innovation consists of a novel class of carbonaceous material called carbide derived carbons (CDCs) for adsorbing ammonia. The method to synthesize CDCs consists of selectively etching out metal atoms from particular metal carbides with chlorine gas. Our group has developed specific etching conditions to leave a tailored metal species and a very tightly defined pore size distribution within the material. The particular patent pending CDCs developed by this research group at Georgia Tech are specifically designed to capture ammonia due to its high surface area and active metal sites tuned to maximize interactions with ammonia. This team has further developed this technology to improve ammonia adsorption using lower cost precursors, aiming for true commercial viability. Both generations have been provisionally filed with US Patent Office. The goal of this project is to determine the most adaptable method for our technology, and the greatest benefits over existing methods for the agricultural industry. As opposed to current ammonia mitigation technology, the proposed materials can be fitted into the existing internal air circulation systems inside poultry houses. A non-invasive, low cost, filtration based method as opposed to the current multiple methods used for ammonia abatement would be transformative for the meat production industry.