SBIR Phase II: Development of Nanoporous Geopolymer Composites as Adsorbent for Arsenic Removal

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的重点是开发一种新型的、环保的、低生命周期成本的吸附材料，用于从水流中去除砷。建议的材料解决方案基于一种专门为此应用而设计的新型纳米多孔地质聚合物复合材料，并通过一种获得专利的、可持续的、能源和材料高效的生产工艺来制造。在第二阶段，在第一阶段的实验室规模上展示的新媒体的卓越性能将在试点规模上得到进一步验证。预计的结果包括：1)新型吸附剂的中试生产成功，以验证材料的成本优势；2)在中试规模上成功验证纳米孔复合材料的优异性能；以及3)通过使用更低成本的前体进一步提高产品成本。本研究的更广泛影响是：(1)为环境修复行业提供了一种新的材料和新的平台技术，可以扩展到去除其他水污染物。这种新型材料将取代现有的吸附介质，将为住宅和商业系统提供性能/成本效益，并具有额外的环境优势；(2)使新的淡水资源得以开发，目前由于美国和发展中国家的高砷含量而无法使用；以及(3)利用广泛的关键清洁技术应用，包括能效(绝缘和催化剂)、能源生产和能源储存，改造纳米多孔材料生产技术。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on the development of a novel, environment-friendly adsorbent material with low life-cycle cost for the removal of Arsenic from the water stream. The proposed material solution is based on a novel nanoporous geopolymer composite designed specifically for this application and manufactured via a patented, sustainable, and energy- and materials-efficient production process. During Phase II, the superior performance of the new media demonstrated at lab scale in Phase I will be further validated at the pilot scale. The anticipated results include 1) successful pilot production of the novel adsorbent to validate the cost advantages of materials; 2) successful validation of superior performance of the nanoporous composite at a pilot testing scale; and 3) further improvement of the product cost by using lower cost precursors.The broader impacts of this research are (1) providing to the environmental remediation industry a new class of materials and novel platform technology that may be expanded to removing other water contaminants. The novel material will be offered to replace the existing sorbent media and will provide performance/cost benefits for residential and commercial systems with additional environmental advantages; (2) enabling the development of new fresh water sources currently unusable due to high Arsenic content in the US and developing countries; and (3) transforming the nanoporous materials production technology with a broad spectrum of critical clean tech applications, including energy efficiency (insulation and catalyst), energy generation, and energy storage.