SBIR Phase I: Sustainable Biofabrication of Next Generation Materials for High Performance Water Filtration

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是引入了一种环保型过滤材料和相应的高性能、耐用的点用滤水器。该产品的竞争优势是提高了处理效率，使用寿命更长，可持续生产，价格与商业产品相似。先进的生物滤料过滤器以较低的总体成本带来了复杂的材料性能和更高的消费者价值。这一第一阶段项目的成功可能会对消费者的水过滤产生深远的商业影响。通过展示金属浸渍过滤材料的一致性，商业应用可以扩展到排放控制、能源储存和化工生产领域。在每个领域，包括水过滤，新的过滤材料将取代从煤炭和椰子中提取的不可持续的材料。这些现有材料与其生产和运输相关，具有重大的环境影响。这个SBIR第一阶段项目计划利用生物有机体的效率来生产高性能、经济和可持续的材料，用于优质过滤应用。为了实现这一目标，已经开发了一种生物制造工艺，其中包括控制真菌的培养，作为生产先进活性碳的模板。这种生物过程允许对化学和物理特性进行精确控制，这些特性可以很容易地针对目标应用进行定制。利用生物积累和生物吸附的过程，真菌可以同时与氮杂原子和生物金属/金属氧化物纳米颗粒一起功能化。这些现场功能极大地改善了材料性能，延长了水过滤的使用寿命(比最先进的过滤技术高出2倍)，同时降低了制造过程中的整体能耗。虽然这一过程已经在公克生产的基础上进行了演示，但第一阶段的技术障碍包括将生产扩大到千克水平，提供关键的材料验证测试，以及最终消费产品的原型制作。为了实现这些目标，将在规模化生物反应器中优化生长条件，将采用工业测试方法，并将生产一种简单但高价值的水过滤设备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is the introduction of an environmentally-beneficial filtration material and corresponding high performance, and long-lasting point-of-use water filter. The competitive advantages of the product are increased treatment efficiency, longer service life, and sustainable production at a similar price point to commercial products. The biofabricated advanced media filter results in sophisticated material properties and higher consumer value at a lower overall cost. The success of this Phase I project has potential for far reaching commercial impacts beyond consumer water filtration. By demonstrating the consistency of the metal impregnated filter material, commercial applications could be extended to the fields of emissions control, energy storage, and chemical production. In each of these fields, including water filtration, the new filter material would be replacing unsustainable materials derived from coal and coconut. These existing materials have significant environmental impacts associated with their production and transportation. This SBIR Phase I project proposed to use the efficiencies of biological organisms to produce high performance, economical, and sustainable materials for premium filtration applications. To achieve this goal, a biofabrication process has been developed that involves the controlled cultivation of fungi serving as a template for the production of advanced activated carbon. This bioprocess allows for precision control over the chemical and physical properties which can be easily customized for targeted applications. Using the process of bioaccumulation and biosorption, the fungi can be functionalized simultaneously with nitrogen heteroatoms and biogenic metals/metal oxide nanoparticles. These in-situ functionalities greatly improve material performance, extension of water filtration service life (2X over state-of-the-art), whilst reducing overall energy consumption during manufacturing. While this process has been demonstrated on the gram production basis, the technical hurdles in this Phase I include scaling production to the kilogram level, providing critical material validation testing, and prototyping of a final consumer product. To execute these goals, growth conditions will be optimized in scaled bioreactors, industrial testing methodology will be employed, and a simple, yet high value water filtration device will be produced.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.