I-Corps: Biodegradable 3D-Printed Oil Absorbents

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响和商业潜力在于其核心技术能够建立溢油清理的新范例，该技术采用按需制造的吸收结构，以匹配所收集的石油的特定特性。由于需要设备、时间和人力，石油泄漏的修复通常是昂贵的。因此，大多数补救方法都集中在大规模泄漏事件上。然而，这些污染只占水道污染总量的5%左右。小规模泄漏的发生频率要高得多，但由于现有的清理技术效率低下，往往被忽视。在该项目中探索的3D打印吸油剂技术通过提供定制的吸油剂容量和按需生产的能力来满足这一需求，通过定制每个泄漏地点的石油性质、数量、环境和天气条件的独特组合，最大限度地提高了大范围事故的采收率。I-Corps项目旨在探索一系列3D打印亲油材料的商业潜力，这些材料能够在专门设计的内部孔隙网络中吸收和保留油。这些吸收性材料还利用形状记忆行为，通过将材料加热到规定的温度，使其自动收缩以挤出收集的油，从而可以提取和回收吸收的油。通过这种方式，吸收性材料可以像自拧海绵一样发挥作用。这些材料是用聚乳酸生产的，聚乳酸是一种廉价的商品生物聚合物，可降解且对环境友好。该技术来源于nsf资助的基础研究项目，该项目确定了最佳孔隙网络设计和处理条件，以最大限度地提高分散在水中的不同石油样品的采收率。3D打印可以按需生产设计的吸收剂结构，以匹配不同石油馏分的特性，最大限度地提高对水的选择性，并允许强封装或易于回收收集的油。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project lies in the core technology's ability to establish a new paradigm for oil spill cleanup that employs on-demand manufacturing of absorbent structures customized to match the specific properties of the oil to be collected. Oil spills are typically expensive to remediate due to the equipment, time, and manpower required. Consequently, most remediation approaches are focused on large-scale spill events. However, these account for only approximately 5% of the total pollution in waterways. Small-scale spills occur much more frequently but are often ignored because existing cleanup technologies are inefficient to deploy. The 3D printed oil absorbent technology to be explored in this project uniquely address this need by delivering customized absorbent capacity and the ability to be produced on-demand to maximize recovery for a broad range incidents via customization toward the unique combination of oil properties, quantity, and environmental and weather conditions at each spill site.This I-Corps project seeks to explore the commercial potential of a family of 3D printable oleophilic materials capable of absorbing and retaining oil within specially designed internal pore networks. These absorbent materials also leverage shape memory behavior, making it possible for the absorbed oil to be extracted and recovered by heating the material to a prescribed temperature at which it automatically contracts to squeeze out the collected oil. In this way, the absorbent materials can be made to function like a self-wringing sponge. These materials are produced using poly(lactic acid), an inexpensive commodity biopolymer that is degradable and environmentally friendly. This technology emerged from fundamental research performed in a prior NSF-sponsored project, where optimal pore network designs and processing conditions were identified to maximize recovery of different petroleum samples dispersed in water. 3D printing enables on-demand production of designer absorbent architectures that match properties of different petroleum fractions, maximize selectivity against water, and permit either strong encapsulation or easy recovery of the collected oil.