NSF Convergence Accelerator Track I: Toward Water Circularity: Mining Green Hydrogen and Value-Added Materials from Hypersaline Brines

NSF的融合加速器旨在将基础材料科学的进步与创新的设计和制造方法结合起来，将其最终用途和对环境和经济可持续材料和产品的全生命周期考虑结合起来。在这一原则的指导下，在2050年实现净零排放的全球目标的推动下，该项目重点展示了一种可持续的生产和制造过程，用于大规模的氢部署和从地球上丰富的高盐盐水（如海水）中开采关键材料。氢是一种绿色燃料，可以帮助加速脱碳过程，而锂和稀土元素等材料对美国供应链的独立性至关重要。该项目强调从线性经济向循环经济的转变；它使大学、行业合作伙伴、政府机构和学生/学员组成一个融合的创新团队，以确保所开发的知识有效地转化为实践的许多方面。可再生能源提出的循环利用水作为燃料和提取可再生能源生产的关键材料对可持续的未来具有广泛的社会影响。该项目将多学科思维整合到本科和K-12课程中，培养未来的工程师和科学家，使他们具备解决多学科问题的技能和兴趣。这项研究支持并使当地社区受益，例如俄勒冈海岸的蓝色部门合作伙伴网络，该网络由来自劳动力发展、学区（CTE）、工业、政府、研究、海事、市政和蓝色技术的合作伙伴组成。该提案旨在展示绿色氢的可持续开采，同时从高盐盐水（如海水）中获取增值关键元素，用于清洁能源应用。在2050年实现净零排放的全球目标的推动下，循环经济原则指导我们开发材料/燃料生产、利用和回收的可持续流程。海水是地球上最丰富的资源，具有巨大的表面可达性和大量的可溶解元素，这是清洁能源技术所必需的。海水也可以用可再生能源（如太阳能）进行分解，以获得氢燃料，副产品是良性氧气。氢是一种零排放燃料（在燃料电池中产生水），是可持续循环过程的一部分。开发从海水中提取氢和关键元素的综合解决方案需要来自大学、行业合作伙伴、政府机构和学生/学员的多学科团队。凭借我们在关键领域的专利技术和研究成果，我们的目标是在循环经济原则的指导下，整合多学科知识、工具和思维模式，加速并将我们的研究融合到两个集成原型：一个是矿泉水分离反应器，另一个是下游电解槽（从降盐废水中生产氢）。除了这个原型之外，我们还将在第一阶段通过团队活动确定额外的专业领域，以准备我们的第二阶段项目。与此同时，我们将与当地利益相关者（专注于俄勒冈海岸，拥有当地的专业知识）合作，并制定培训计划，在这两个阶段用创新的循环概念教育下一代劳动力。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。

This track I NSF’s Convergence Accelerator aims to converge advances in fundamental materials science with innovative design and manufacturing methods to couple their end-use and full life-cycle considerations for environmentally- and economically sustainable materials and products. Guided by this principle and motivated by the global goal of Net-Zero Emissions by 2050, this project focuses on demonstration of a sustainable production and manufacturing process for large-scale hydrogen deployment and critical materials mining from earth’s abundant hypersaline brines (e.g., seawater). Hydrogen is a green fuel that can help accelerate decarbonization processes, and materials such as Lithium and Rare Earth elements that are critical to U.S. supply chain independence. This project emphasizes transformation from a linear to a circular economy; it enables a convergent, innovative team of universities, industry partners, government agencies, and students/trainees to ensure that the knowledge developed transitions effectively into many aspects of practice. The proposed circular use of water for fuel by renewable energy and extraction of critical materials for renewable energy production has broad societal impacts for a sustainable future. This project integrates multidisciplinary thinking into the undergraduate and K-12 curriculum, producing future engineers and scientists with skills and interests to work on multidisciplinary problems. This research supports and benefits the local community, such as the Oregon Coast’s Blue Sector Partnership Network consisting of partners from workforce development, school districts (CTE), industry, government, research, maritime, municipalities, and blue technology. This proposal aims to demonstrate the sustainable mining of green hydrogen in parallel with value-added critical elements from hypersaline brines (e.g., seawater) for clean energy applications. Motivated by the global goal of Net-Zero Emissions by 2050, circular economy principles guide our development of sustainable processes for materials/fuels production, utilization, and recycling. Seawater represents the most abundant resource on the earth, with immense surface accessibility and large amounts of solubilized elements imperative for clean energy technologies. Seawater can also be split using renewable energy (e.g., solar) to obtain hydrogen fuel, with benign oxygen gas as a byproduct. Hydrogen presents a zero-emission fuel (producing water in a fuel cell), part of a circular sustainable process. Developing an integrated solution for extracting hydrogen and critical elements from seawater requires a multidisciplinary team from universities, industry partners, government agencies, and students/trainees. With our patented technologies and research results in critical areas, we aim to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge, tools, and modes of thinking under the guidance of circular economy principles to accelerate and converge our research to two integrated prototypes: a mineral-water separation reactor and downstream electrolyzer (producing hydrogen from the reduced-saline effluent). In addition to this prototyping, we will also identify in Phase 1 additional areas of expertise through team activities to prepare our Phase 2 project. In parallel, we will engage local stakeholders (focused on the Oregon Coast with our local expertise) and create training programs to educate next-generation workforces with innovative circular concepts in both Phases.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.