SBIR Phase I: Sustainable Biofabrication of Next Generation Materials for High Performance Water Filtration

SBIR 第一阶段：用于高性能水过滤的下一代材料的可持续生物制造

• 批准号: 1820290
• 负责人: Justin Whiteley
• 金额: $ 22.12万
• 依托单位: Emergy LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-15 至 2019-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1820290&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Sustainable; Biofabrication; Next

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is the introduction of an environmentally-beneficial filtration material and corresponding high performance, and long-lasting point-of-use water filter. The competitive advantages of the product are increased treatment efficiency, longer service life, and sustainable production at a similar price point to commercial products. The biofabricated advanced media filter results in sophisticated material properties and higher consumer value at a lower overall cost. The success of this Phase I project has potential for far reaching commercial impacts beyond consumer water filtration. By demonstrating the consistency of the metal impregnated filter material, commercial applications could be extended to the fields of emissions control, energy storage, and chemical production. In each of these fields, including water filtration, the new filter material would be replacing unsustainable materials derived from coal and coconut. These existing materials have significant environmental impacts associated with their production and transportation. This SBIR Phase I project proposed to use the efficiencies of biological organisms to produce high performance, economical, and sustainable materials for premium filtration applications. To achieve this goal, a biofabrication process has been developed that involves the controlled cultivation of fungi serving as a template for the production of advanced activated carbon. This bioprocess allows for precision control over the chemical and physical properties which can be easily customized for targeted applications. Using the process of bioaccumulation and biosorption, the fungi can be functionalized simultaneously with nitrogen heteroatoms and biogenic metals/metal oxide nanoparticles. These in-situ functionalities greatly improve material performance, extension of water filtration service life (2X over state-of-the-art), whilst reducing overall energy consumption during manufacturing. While this process has been demonstrated on the gram production basis, the technical hurdles in this Phase I include scaling production to the kilogram level, providing critical material validation testing, and prototyping of a final consumer product. To execute these goals, growth conditions will be optimized in scaled bioreactors, industrial testing methodology will be employed, and a simple, yet high value water filtration device will be produced.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是引入一种对环境有益的过滤材料和相应的高性能，持久的使用点水过滤器。该产品的竞争优势是提高了处理效率，延长了使用寿命，并以与商业产品相似的价格进行可持续生产。生物制造的先进介质过滤器以较低的总成本实现了复杂的材料特性和更高的消费价值。该项目第一阶段的成功具有超越消费者水过滤的深远商业影响的潜力。通过证明金属浸渍过滤材料的一致性，商业应用可以扩展到排放控制，能量存储和化学生产领域。在每个领域，包括水过滤，新的过滤材料将取代来自煤炭和椰子的不可持续的材料。这些现有材料在其生产和运输过程中会对环境产生重大影响。该SBIR第一阶段项目提出利用生物有机体的效率生产高性能，经济和可持续的材料，用于优质过滤应用。为了实现这一目标，已经开发了一种生物制造工艺，该工艺涉及作为用于生产高级活性炭的模板的真菌的受控培养。这种生物工艺允许对化学和物理性质进行精确控制，可以很容易地针对目标应用进行定制。利用生物累积和生物吸附的过程，真菌可以同时用氮杂原子和生物源金属/金属氧化物纳米颗粒官能化。这些原位功能大大提高了材料性能，延长了水过滤使用寿命（是最先进技术的2倍），同时降低了制造过程中的总体能耗。虽然这一过程已在克生产的基础上得到证明，但第一阶段的技术障碍包括将生产规模扩大到公斤级，提供关键材料验证测试，以及最终消费品的原型设计。为了实现这些目标，将在规模化的生物反应器中优化生长条件，采用工业测试方法，并生产简单但高价值的水过滤装置。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。