NSF Convergence Accelerator Track M: A new biomanufacturing process for making precipitated calcium carbonate and plant-based compounds that support human health

这一融合研究项目将通过开发和测试一种新的生物制造工艺来生产营养品（支持人类健康的植物性化合物）和一种气候友好型碳酸钙沉淀（PCC）产品，从而在国家和全球范围内影响社会。新的生物制造工艺将使用微型植物（微藻）将饮用水淡化厂的废水转化为这些具有经济价值的产品的来源。提供新的营养品来源将支持公共卫生和粮食安全。新工艺还可以通过向这些市场提供环境可持续和气候友好型的PCC，支持依赖PCC的行业——包括造纸、塑料、橡胶、油墨、制药和加钙食品和饮料。通过重新利用海水淡化废水，这种新的生物制造工艺将通过将废水转化为产品流来减少污染，并可能有助于抵消与能源密集型海水淡化工艺相关的碳成本，从而促进水安全和减缓气候变化。此外，在混凝土中使用气候友好型PCC来恢复海洋栖息地可以将这些活动转向碳中和，并提供帮助抵消生态系统退化和物种灭绝所需的新材料。该项目的目标是开发一种新的生物制造工艺，该工艺受到漂白事件的启发，利用海水淡化厂和微藻的盐水从藻类生物质中生产营养药品，并从微藻高ph培养液和盐水中生产气候友好型PCC。白化是一种自然现象，发生在湖泊和海洋中，碳酸钙沉淀形成白色，呈粉笔色的水。特殊的微藻可以在其培养液中创造高ph值条件，当与钙离子来源（如盐水）混合时，促进PCC的形成。在这个过程中，PCC的一部分质量直接来自于大气中的二氧化碳，这些二氧化碳溶解在高ph培养液中，随后被碳酸钙沉淀，即“捕获”，形成一种称为碳捕获PCC的产品。融合加速器的愿景是在海水淡化设施中建立我们新的生物制造过程的原型，然后生产，测试和优化营养食品和碳捕获PCC产品。在第一阶段的计划拨款中，目标是巩固团队，发展与行业和最终用户的伙伴关系，在实验室中建立和测试新的生物制造过程的原型，根据最终用户的意见对产品进行表征和改进，并充分参与融合加速器的课程和会议。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 convergence research project will impact society at a national and global scale by developing and testing a new biomanufacturing process for making nutraceuticals (plant-based compounds that support human health) and a climate-friendly precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) product that incorporates carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The new biomanufacturing process will use microscopic plants (microalgae) to transform waste streams of drinking water desalination plants into a source of these economically valuable products. Providing new sources of nutraceuticals will support public health and food security. The new process also could support industries that rely on PCC - including paper, plastics, rubber, ink, pharmaceuticals, and calcium fortified food and beverages - by providing environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly PCC to these markets. By reusing desalination waste streams, this new biomanufacturing process would reduce pollution by transforming waste streams into product streams, and may serve to offset the carbon costs associated with energy-intensive desalination processes, contributing to water security and climate change mitigation. In addition, using the climate-friendly PCC in concrete for marine habitat restoration could shift these activities toward carbon neutrality and provide new materials needed to help counteract ecosystem degradation and species extinction.The project goal is to develop a new biomanufacturing process inspired by whiting events that uses brine from desalination plants and microalgae to create nutraceuticals from the algae biomass and climate-friendly PCC from the microalgal high-pH culture fluid and brine. Whiting events are natural phenomena that take place in lakes and oceans when calcium carbonate precipitates causing white, chalk-colored water. Specialized microalgae can create high-pH conditions in the fluid of their cultures that promote the formation of PCC when mixed with a source of calcium ions like brine. In the process, a portion of the mass of the PCC comes directly from atmospheric carbon dioxide that dissolves in the high-pH culture fluid and is subsequently precipitated - i.e., "captured" - in the calcium carbonate, creating a product called carbon-capture PCC. The vision for the Convergence Accelerator is to build a prototype of our new biomanufacturing process at a desalination facility, then produce, test, and optimize nutraceutical and carbon-capture PCC products. In this Phase I planning grant, the objectives are to solidify the team and develop partnerships with industries and end-users, build and test a prototype of the new biomanufacturing process in the laboratory, characterize and refine the products with end-user input, and participate fully in the Convergence Accelerator curriculum and meetings.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.