I-Corps: Decentralized fertilizer production for improving soil quality and plant growth

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于引进一种利用当地可用资源和劳动力在农村地区就地生产肥料的新工艺。通过减少从集中生产工厂运输笨重的肥料成分的需要，该过程可以显着降低农村地区肥料获取的成本，同时在几乎单个农场粒度的水平上提高肥料的可定制性。通过生产可定制的肥料配方，除了减少对水和商业肥料成分的需求外，还可以提高作物产量，从而提高最终用户（例如农民）的收入，这一创新可以带来经济效益，并改善粮食和水安全。由于拟议的技术使用诸如农场残渣之类的生物质作为原料，它还有助于有效的废物管理和养分回收，而不会影响食物链。I-Corps的这个项目是基于贫氧热化学处理和生物质升级，这样，与传统的覆盖或堆肥工艺相比，难以消化的木质纤维素纤维的分解速度可以提高100倍。这个过程是自热的，不需要外部能量来持续维持。基于这一化学概念，该项目已经建模、开发、建造并测试了一个实验室规模的反应器原型。通过调节空气-生物质比和反应器中产物的去除率，对反应条件和产量进行了正控制。通过定义反应指数并将其与相关肥料特性（如pH值、离子活性）联系起来，以及开发一个控制系统来处理不同类型的作物残留物，扩大设计的方法已经计划好了。测试的原料范围包括稻壳、干草秸秆和核桃壳，生产出具有不同特性的不同等级的输出肥料成分。然后将产出肥料成分与当地可用的营养添加剂混合，形成可调节孔隙度和ph值的配方，可为个别农场量身定制，以优化土壤质量（例如水和养分保持能力）。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 lies in introducing a new process for producing fertilizer locally in rural areas using locally available resources and labor. By reducing the need to transport bulky fertilizer components from centralized production plants, this process can significantly reduce the cost of fertilizer access in rural areas, while improving the customizability of fertilizer at the level of almost single-farm granularity. By producing customizable fertilizer formulations that can promote improved crop yield and hence higher income for the end users (e.g. farmers) in addition to reduced requirements of water and commercial fertilizer components, this innovation can lead to economic benefits as well as improved food and water security. Since the proposed technology uses biomass such as farm residue as a feedstock, it also contributes to effective waste management and nutrient recycling without affecting the food chain.This I-Corps project is based on oxygen-lean thermochemical treatment and upgrading of biomass, such that the hard-to-digest lignocellulosic fibers can be broken down 100 times faster compared to traditional mulching or composting processes. The process is autothermal, requiring no external energy to sustain itself continuously. Based on this chemical concept, the project has been modeled, developed, built, and tested a laboratory-scale reactor prototype. Positive control over the reaction condition and output by adjusting the air-biomass ratio and the removal rate of the product from the reactor has been demonstrated. Methods to scale-up the design by defining an index of reaction and linking it to the relevant fertilizer characteristics-such as pH, ionic activity-and developing a control system to process diverse types of crop residues has been planned. The range of feedstock tested include rice husk, hay straws, and walnut shells, producing diverse grades of the output fertilizer component with different characteristics. The output fertilizer component is then mixed with locally available nutrient additives resulting in a porosity- and pH-adjustable formulation that can be custom-tailored for individual farms to optimize soil quality (e.g. water and nutrient retention capacity).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.