CAREER: Design of surface modified membranes for recovery of key fertilizer macronutrients from wastewater

职业：设计表面改性膜，用于从废水中回收关键肥料常量营养素

• 批准号: 2339468
• 负责人: Oishi Sanyal
• 金额: $ 56.84万
• 依托单位: West Virginia University Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-08-01 至 2029-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2339468&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Design; surface; modified; membranes

The demand for the constituent nutrients of fertilizer (Nitrogen(N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium(K)), which is already high, is expected to grow as the world population grows. The traditional technologies to produce these nutrients are energy intensive and are associated with large carbon footprints. On the other hand, these nutrients are abundantly present in wastewater and, in fact, their release into lakes and streams leads to environmental problems like excessive algal blooms and eutrophication, which requires billions of dollars for remediation. Membrane processes could play an important role in solving both of these challenges by recovering key fertilizer components and preventing their release into the environment while reducing the reliance on traditional energy-intensive processes. In this work, the investigator aims to identify and analyze the critical separation mechanisms in polyelectrolyte-modified membranes for the recovery of two key macronutrients - nitrogen (as ammonium ion, NH4+) and potassium (K+) from wastewater. The educational activities will provide mentored research opportunities to low- income, first-generation students, who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM higher education via summer workshops. Additionally, the project also aims to improve the recruitment and retention of students in engineering via introduction of a new experiential learning initiative. The investigator aims to identify and analyze the critical separation mechanisms in polyelectrolyte modified membranes that enable selective recovery of fertilizer macronutrients from wastewater under neutral pH conditions, with the goal to guide advanced membrane development. The PI’s research will analyze the role of size exclusion, charge based transport, and hydration-based separation in polyelectrolyte-modified membranes to facilitate organic/nutrient partitioning and recovery of nutrients in tunable proportions. The PI aims to develop a fundamental framework that relates membrane morphological properties to different separation mechanisms like size-exclusion, charge-based transport and hydration-based ion separation which must be synergized to achieve desirable organic/nutrient separation.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.

对肥料（氮（N），磷（P）和钾（K））的肥料成分营养的需求预计会随着世界人口的增长而增长。生产这些营养素的传统技术是能源密集型的，并且与大碳足迹有关。另一方面，这些营养物质绝对存在于废水中，实际上，它们释放到湖泊和溪流中会导致环境问题，例如过量的藻类血液和富营养化，这需要数十亿美元进行修复。膜工艺可以通过恢复关键的肥料成分并防止其释放到环境中，同时减少传统能源密集型过程的缓解，从而在解决这两个挑战中发挥重要作用。在这项工作中，研究人员旨在鉴定和分析聚电解质修饰机制中的关键分离机制，以恢复两种关键的大量营养素 - 氮（如铵离子，NH4+）和钾（K+）（K+）。这些教育活动将为低收入的第一代学生提供指导的研究机会，这些学生传统上通过夏季研讨会在STEM高等教育中的代表性不足。此外，该项目还旨在通过引入新的专家学习计划来改善学生在工程学方面的招聘和保留。研究人员旨在识别和分析聚电解质修饰的膜中的关键分离机制，以在中性pH条件下从废水中选择性回收从废水中选择性回收，目的是指导晚期膜的发育。 PI的研究将分析尺寸排除，基于电荷的运输和基于水合的聚电解质改性膜中的作用，以促进有机/营养素分配和以可调比例的养分恢复营养素。 PI旨在开发一个将膜形态特性与不同分离机制相关联的基本框架，例如尺寸 - 排除机制，基于电荷的运输和基于水合的离子分离，必须协同以实现理想的有机/营养分离。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，反映了通过评估概念的支持和公民的支持。