SBIR Phase I: Capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) via water electrolysis

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响将是开发一种经济上可行的工艺，通过从空气中提取二氧化碳（CO2）并将其用于制造我们日常生活中使用的耐用聚合物，来帮助缓解和扭转气候变化。全球越来越大的压力要求结束排放密集型的、以化石燃料为基础的作业。然而，社会有广泛的基础设施，使用碳氢化合物作为燃料以及塑料和其他聚合物。拟议的系统将用于使用从空气中捕获的二氧化碳和从水中分离的氢气来制造有用的碳氢化合物材料。这项技术代表了在不依赖化石燃料的情况下满足全球碳氢化合物需求的新途径，这不仅可以减少排放，而且可以净减少大气中的“遗留二氧化碳”。这项技术可能会在美国经济中创造新的就业机会，主要是在城市商业中心之外。这个SBIR项目将开发一种新的系统，将CO2直接空气捕获集成到水电解装置中，以便从单个装置中产生捕获的CO2和绿色氢气（H2）流，其能量需求不比单独的水电解高很多。该系统依赖于两个主要创新：1）使用独特的缓冲溶液和新颖的反应器设计的水电解方法，其将直接空气接触与水电解结合以同时从水中捕获CO2和产生H2，以及2）一种新的中空纤维膜生物反应器，其使用多层水凝胶包封的生物体将电解反应器的排放物转化为生物甲烷（也称为可再生天然气或RNG），并最终转化为更复杂的烃分子。该项目的目标是优化电解反应器和生物反应器的性能，以证明捕获环境CO2并将其“升级循环”为RNG的经济可行的途径。虽然最初的升级循环目标是RNG，但电解反应器的排放物适合转化为更复杂的碳氢化合物。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 of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be in the development of an economically viable process that can help mitigate and reverse climate change by pulling carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and using it to make durable polymers used in items that surround us every day. There is increasing global pressure to end emissions-intensive, fossil fuel-based operations. However, society has a extensive infrastructure that uses hydrocarbon as fuels as well as in plastics and other polymers. The proposed system will be used to manufacture useful hydrocarbon materials using carbon dioxide captured from air and hydrogen split from water. This technology represents a new pathway for meeting global demand for hydrocarbons without relying on fossil fuels, which may result not only in reduced emissions but in a net draw-down of the “legacy CO2” in the atmosphere. This technology may create new jobs in the American economy, mostly outside the urban commercial centers.This SBIR project will develop a novel system that integrates CO2 direct air capture into a water electrolysis device so as to produce a stream of captured CO2 and green hydrogen (H2) from a single device with energy requirements not much higher than water electrolysis alone. The system relies on two primary innovations: 1) a water electrolysis process using a unique buffer solution and a novel reactor design that combines direct air contact with water electrolysis to simultaneously capture CO2 and produce H2 from water, and 2) a new hollow fiber membrane bioreactor that uses multiple layers of hydrogel-encapsulated organisms to convert the electrolysis reactor’s emissions into biogenic methane (also known as renewable natural gas or RNG), and eventually into more complex hydrocarbon molecules. The goal of this project is to optimize the performance of both the electrolysis reactor and the bioreactor in order to demonstrate an economically viable pathway for capturing ambient CO2 and “upcycling” it into RNG. While the initial upcycling target is RNG, the emissions from the electrolysis reactor are suitable for conversion into more complex hydrocarbons.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.