SBIR Phase II: High Efficiency Low Cost Nitrogen Fertilizer Production from Fly Ash

该小型企业创新研究(SBIR)二期项目旨在开发创新的高效、低成本的飞灰氮肥生产技术。飞灰是一种来自燃煤电厂的回收材料，可能含有高浓度的汞和碳。传统的氮肥生产以天然气为主要原料，成本非常高。传统化肥是水溶性化合物，导致化肥大量损失，进而污染溪流和地下水。美国的燃煤电厂每年产生超过7110万吨的飞灰，其中大部分被丢弃在垃圾填埋场。飞灰中汞含量高，使处置变得更加困难和昂贵。二期工程将使可行的飞灰氮肥生产技术从实验室规模进入中试规模，并将确定最佳中试操作条件，生产用于农田田间试验的肥料，并论证其商业可行性。试点工厂数据将用于了解设计参数和运行条件对工厂性能的重要性，改进制造工厂设计，并降低与制造工厂建设相关的风险。如果该项目成功，更广泛的影响(商业意义)将是对飞灰的高产量和高技术应用，以及一种附加值高、高效、低成本的氮肥。这种肥料的生产不会受到天然气供应的影响。此外，这种氮肥的预计生产成本比传统氮肥低得多。这种新型氮肥在农场上的使用将提高作物生产的盈利能力，防止肥料损失和水污染。通过避免飞灰的填埋处理，燃煤电厂将节省数百万美元。如果美国燃煤电厂生产的飞灰全部用于生产氮肥，那么生产的氮肥数量可以满足整个美国市场的需求。这项新技术的成功将给传统的氮肥生产工艺带来革命性的变化，并将产生巨大的环境、经济和技术效益。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to develop innovative high efficiency, low cost nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing technology from fly ash. Fly ash is a recycled material from coal power plants that may contain high concentrations of mercury and carbon. Traditional nitrogen fertilizer production uses natural gas as the primary feedstock and is very costly. The traditional fertilizers are water-soluble compounds, resulting in significant loss of fertilizer which in turn pollutes streams and ground water. America's coal power plants produce more than 71.1 million tons of fly ash per year, and most of it is disposed in landfills. The high mercury content in the fly ash makes the disposal more difficult and costly. The Phase II project will bring the viable fly ash nitrogen fertilizer production technology from a laboratory scale to a pilot scale, and will determine the optimal pilot plant operation conditions, produce fertilizer for farmland field testing, and demonstrate its commercial viability. The pilot plant data will be used to understand the importance of design parameters and operating conditions on plant performance, refine the manufacturing plant design, and reduce the risk associated with construction of manufacturing plants. The broader impacts (commercial significance) if this project is successful will be a high volume and highly technical application for fly ash and a value-added high efficiency low cost nitrogen fertilizer. The production of this fertilizer will not be affected by the availability of natural gas. Moreover, the projected production cost of this nitrogen fertilizer is much lower than that of the traditional nitrogen fertilizer. The use of this new nitrogen fertilizer on farms will increase crop production profitability and prevent fertilizer loss and water pollution. By avoiding the landfill disposal of the fly ash, the coal power plants will save millions of dollars. If all the fly ash produced at coal power plants in the US were used to produce nitrogen fertilizer, the amount of nitrogen fertilizer produced could meet the entire US market demand. The success of this new technology will bring a revolutionary change to the traditional nitrogen fertilizer production process and will have substantial environmental, economic, and technical benefits.