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

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是催化创新纳米气泡技术在环境、农业和其他潜在工程应用中的发展和商业化。在环境应用方面，反应性纳米气泡技术可以影响水或废水处理行业、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，通过藻华）。其价值主张包括提高水处理效率（例如提高消毒效果），减少氯等传统危险化学品的使用，以及降低水修复的维护/运营成本。在农业领域，纳米泡水灌溉能显著提高水中溶解氧100-5000%，并能有效地将含氧水和氮等生长要素输送到植物根系。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地业务，促进草坪或草坪维护中的减少或无化学施肥，从而提高生态系统安全性，减少负面环境影响。这个I-Corps项目在纳米尺度上探索胶体气泡系统的基本工程原理。创新的科学方法采用反应性纳米气泡来控制和减轻水污染以及支持智能农业灌溉/施肥。具体来说，纳米气泡技术是在水或其他液体介质中产生直径为1um的超小尺寸气泡的过程。纳米气泡具有较低的浮力和优异的抗聚结、抗塌缩、抗破裂、抗体泡形成的稳定性，在水中的停留时间较长。因此，相对于常规的体积或大气泡，纳米气泡由于其高表面积而具有更高的传质效率，这也有利于气液界面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都有潜在的用途，从超声波成像和细胞内药物输送、制药制造、无洗涤剂表面清洁、采矿分离、水净化到废水处理。第一军团项目的重点是评价控制和减轻水污染以及农业灌溉方面的独特商业模式。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.