PFI-RP: The development of a novel calcium carbonate, sourced from atmospheric carbon dioxide, as a green alternative for use in consumer and industrial products.

这一创新-研究伙伴关系(PFI-RP)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是生产可持续的沉淀碳酸钙(PCCs)。二氧化碳(CO2)的增加导致全球气温上升。这种变暖预计将导致极端天气事件增加，粮食产量减少，海洋酸化，以及对关键生态系统服务的破坏，这就需要找到新的技术，通过封存来消除这种多余的二氧化碳。这项研究使用一种新的碳捕获方法将大气中的二氧化碳捕获为微米级的PCCs，这些PCCs在纸张、密封剂和涂料中有广泛的工业用途。全球涂料产量约为420亿升，其中高达30%的产量包括可以取代PCCs的填充剂和颜料。二氧化碳的这种使用有可能显著改善涂料的碳足迹，而这些微生物衍生的PCCs的独特性质可以提高性能。美国涂料市场每年价值280亿美元，其中PCCs代表着2.62亿美元的可用市场。拟议的项目将决定PCC生产技术的可扩展性。限制工业规模化生产(最高可达1,500 L h-1)的两个技术挑战包括快速有效地将微米级的PCCs从细菌中分离出来，以及开发一种与当前PCC技术具有价格竞争力的工艺。通过将微生物代谢过程与遗传增强相结合，该团队将确定并建立优化PCC大小、形态和生产率的稳定条件。这项拟议工作的目的是开发一种连续培养策略，模仿类似的工业规模过程，如乙醇生产。该团队还将利用流体动力学原理设计新颖的切向流过滤(TFF)策略。该技术将从小批量培养方法转移到集成的1升连续培养过滤过程，以模拟该方法在工业相关条件下的有效性。这项研究将增加对细菌中微生物诱导的沉淀的科学理解，以及开发新的分离方法的潜力。这一奖项反映了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 Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is the production of sustainable precipitated calcium carbonates (PCCs). Increased carbon dioxide (CO2) has led to an increase in global temperatures. This warming is expected to lead to increased extreme weather events, reduced food production, ocean acidification, and damage to critical ecosystem services, necessitating the need to find new technologies that remove this excess CO2 through sequestration. This research uses a novel carbon capture methodology to trap atmospheric CO2 as micron-scale PCCs, which have a wide range of industrial uses in paper, sealants, and paint. Around 42 billion liters of paint are produced globally and up to 30% of this volume includes fillers and pigments that PCCs could replace. This use of CO2 has the potential to significantly improve the carbon footprint of paint, while the unique properties of these microbially-derived PCCs can increase performance. The US paint market is valued at $28 billion annually, with PCCs representing a served available market of $262 million.The proposed project will determine the scalability of PCC production technology. There are two technical challenges limiting industrial scaling of production (to rates up to 1,500 L h-1); These include the quick and efficient separation of micron-sized PCCs from bacteria, and the development of a process that is price competitive with current PCC technologies. By combining microbial metabolic processes with genetic enhancement, the team will identify and establish the steady-state conditions that optimize PCC size, morphology, and rate of production. It is the aim of the proposed work to develop a continuous culture strategy that mimics similar industrial-scale processes, such as ethanol production. The team will also use the principles of fluid dynamics to design novel, tangential flow filtration (TFF) strategies. The technology will be moved to from small batch culture approach to an integrated 1 liter continuous-culture filtration process to model the effectiveness of the approach under industrially-relevant conditions. The research will increase the scientific understanding of microbially-induced precipitation in bacteria as well as the potential to develop novel separation approaches.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.