I-Corps: Reactive Nanobubbles Technology for Green and Sustainable Environmental and Agricultural Applications

I-Corps：用于绿色和可持续环境和农业应用的反应纳米气泡技术

• 批准号: 1912367
• 负责人: Wen Zhang
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-02-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1912367&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Reactive; Nanobubbles; Technology; Green

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to catalyze the development and commercialization of innovative nanobubble technologies in environmental, agricultural and other potential engineering applications. In environmental applications, reactive nanobubble technologies could impact water or wastewater treatment industries, municipal water treatment plants, drinking water disinfection, natural and landscape water management and remediation of impaired water bodies (e.g., by algal bloom). Value propositions include the improved water treatment efficiency (e.g., increased disinfection efficacy), reduced use of traditional hazardous chemicals such as chlorine, and reduced maintenance/operational cost in water remediation. In agricultural fields, irrigation with nanobubble water can significantly improve dissolved oxygen in water by 100-5000% and efficiently deliver oxygenated water and growth elements such as nitrogen to plant roots. Thus, the value propositions include improving crop or plant's growth, health and quality. Moreover, nanobubble water can positively affect turf and grass business and promote reduced or chemical-free fertilization in turf or lawn maintenance and therefore increase ecosystem safety and reduce negative environmental impacts. This I-Corps project explores fundamental engineering principles of colloidal bubble systems at nanoscale dimensions. Innovative scientific approaches employ reactive nanobubbles to control and mitigate water pollution as well as support smart agricultural irrigation/fertilization. Specifically, nanobubble technologies are processes that generate ultra-small sizes of bubbles with a diameter of 1 um dispersed in water or other liquid media. Nanobubbles in water have a long residence time in water due to their low buoyancy and excellent stability against coalesces, collapse or burst, and the formation of bulk bubbles. Therefore, compared to regular bulk or large bubbles, nanobubbles have a higher efficiency of mass transfer due to their high surface areas, which also facilitates physical adsorption and chemical reactions in the gas-liquid interface. Therefore, nanobubble technologies are potentially useful in many industrial and engineering applications, ranging from ultra-sound imaging and intracellular drug delivery, pharmaceutical manufacturing, detergent-free surface cleaning, mining separation, water purification to wastewater treatment. This I-Corps project focuses on the evaluation of unique business models in water pollution control and mitigation as well as irrigation for agricultural applications.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I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是促进环境，农业和其他潜在工程应用中创新纳米气泡技术的开发和商业化。在环境应用中，反应性纳米气泡技术可以影响水或废水处理工业、市政水处理厂、饮用水消毒、自然和景观水管理以及受损水体的修复（例如，（Algae Bloom）价值主张包括提高水处理效率（例如，提高消毒效率），减少氯等传统危险化学品的使用，并降低水治理的维护/运营成本。在农业领域，用纳米气泡水灌溉可以将水中的溶解氧显著提高100-5000%，并有效地将含氧水和氮等生长元素输送到植物根部。因此，价值主张包括改善作物或植物的生长、健康和质量。此外，纳米气泡水可以积极影响草坪和草业务，并促进在草坪或草坪维护中减少或不使用化学肥料，从而提高生态系统安全性并减少对环境的负面影响。 这个I-Corps项目探索了纳米尺度下胶体气泡系统的基本工程原理。创新的科学方法利用反应性纳米气泡来控制和减轻水污染，并支持智能农业灌溉/施肥。具体而言，纳米气泡技术是产生分散在水或其他液体介质中的直径为1 μ m的超小尺寸气泡的过程。水中的纳米气泡在水中具有长的停留时间，这是由于它们的低浮力和针对聚结、塌陷或破裂以及形成大体积气泡的优异稳定性。因此，与常规的大块或大气泡相比，纳米气泡由于其高表面积而具有更高的传质效率，这也促进了气液界面中的物理吸附和化学反应。因此，纳米气泡技术在许多工业和工程应用中是潜在有用的，范围从超声成像和细胞内药物递送、药物制造、无洗涤剂表面清洁、采矿分离、水净化到废水处理。这个I-Corps项目的重点是评估水污染控制和缓解以及农业灌溉应用的独特商业模式。这个奖项反映了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。

项目成果

Probing Internal Pressures and Long-Term Stability of Nanobubbles in Water

探测水中纳米气泡的内部压力和长期稳定性

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c03574
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Langmuir
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Xiaonan Shi, Shan Xue