STTR Phase I: Carbon Sequestration & Waste Management for College Campuses & Larger Facilities

这个小企业技术转让研究第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是利用废物生产清洁的绿色能源。这项技术可以将垃圾填埋场的废物转移，同时封存碳，并可用于许多其他行业，如食品垃圾，林业生物质和救灾。 例如，野火正在成为每年的威胁，摧毁了大部分州和数千所房屋。这项技术可以通过清理森林下层植被来降低野火风险。许多州的垃圾填埋场将在未来几年达到最大容量，并面临关闭的威胁：将垃圾填埋场废物转移到有价值的产品生产中是非常可取的。除了城市废物外，还可以通过将这些废物流转化为有价值的产出来减少农业废物的燃烧，例如用于混凝土和水过滤等应用的生物燃料和生物炭。在这个过程中，大量的碳被封存，这可以为运营商赚取额外的碳信用额。拟议的项目将开发一个低压水热液化倾斜旋转气化炉（IRG）。该项目将优化其产量，以进一步净化液化气产品流中的重金属污染物，如铜，铅，汞，镍，锌和镉，以及高浓度的其他污染物。第一阶段的研究将集中在开发工艺，以消除高达90%的原始浓度的这些污染物，而不损害合成气的能量含量。这将需要最大限度地提高生物炭的生产率。这些速率通常低于使用生物质作为原料时的速率。因此，将对系统的热效率进行详细调查，以提高其效率。这可能需要通过设计修改和操作条件的选择来提高传热率。生物油和水（来自高压脱水系统）也将通过由相同的城市固体废物原料产生的生物炭进行清洁。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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Research Phase I project is to use waste to produce clean, green energy. The proposed technology diverts waste material from landfills while sequestering carbon and can be used in many other industries such as food waste, forestry biomass and disaster relief. For example, wildfires are becoming an annual threat that destroys large portions of states and thousands of homes. The proposed technology can reduce wildfire risk by cleaning up the forest undergrowth. Landfills in many states will be reaching maximum capacity in coming years and are under threat of being shut down: diverting landfill waste to the production of valuable products is much desired. Besides municipal waste, it is also possible to reduce the burning of agricultural waste by converting these waste streams into valuable outputs, such as biofuels and biochar for use in applications including concrete and water filtration. A significant amount of carbon is sequestered in this process which can earn additional carbon credits to the operator.The proposed project will develop a low-pressure hydrothermal liquefaction Inclined Rotary Gasifier (IRG). The project will optimize its outputs to further clean up the liquid & gas product streams from heavy metal contaminants such as Cu, Pb, Hg, Ni, Zn, and Cd, and high concentrations of other contaminants. Phase I research will focus on developing the process to remove up to 90% of the original concentration of these contaminants without compromising the syngas energy content. This will require maximizing the biochar production rate. These rates are typically lower than those when biomass is used as a feedstock. Hence a detailed investigation into the system's thermal efficiency will be undertaken with an aim to increase it. This may require increasing the heat transfer rates through design modifications and the choice of operating conditions. The bio-oil and water (from the high-pressure dewatering system) will also be cleaned by the biochar produced by the same municipal solid waste feedstock.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.