NSF Convergence Accelerator Track M: A new biomanufacturing process for making precipitated calcium carbonate and plant-based compounds that support human health

NSF Convergence Accelerator Track M：一种新的生物制造工艺，用于制造支持人类健康的沉淀碳酸钙和植物基化合物

基本信息

批准号：
2344228
负责人：
Elizabeth North
金额：
$ 65万
依托单位：
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2024
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2024-01-15 至 2024-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2344228&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
NSF Convergence Accelerator Track new

项目摘要

This convergence research project will impact society at a national and global scale by developing and testing a new biomanufacturing process for making nutraceuticals (plant-based compounds that support human health) and a climate-friendly precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) product that incorporates carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The new biomanufacturing process will use microscopic plants (microalgae) to transform waste streams of drinking water desalination plants into a source of these economically valuable products. Providing new sources of nutraceuticals will support public health and food security. The new process also could support industries that rely on PCC - including paper, plastics, rubber, ink, pharmaceuticals, and calcium fortified food and beverages - by providing environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly PCC to these markets. By reusing desalination waste streams, this new biomanufacturing process would reduce pollution by transforming waste streams into product streams, and may serve to offset the carbon costs associated with energy-intensive desalination processes, contributing to water security and climate change mitigation. In addition, using the climate-friendly PCC in concrete for marine habitat restoration could shift these activities toward carbon neutrality and provide new materials needed to help counteract ecosystem degradation and species extinction.The project goal is to develop a new biomanufacturing process inspired by whiting events that uses brine from desalination plants and microalgae to create nutraceuticals from the algae biomass and climate-friendly PCC from the microalgal high-pH culture fluid and brine. Whiting events are natural phenomena that take place in lakes and oceans when calcium carbonate precipitates causing white, chalk-colored water. Specialized microalgae can create high-pH conditions in the fluid of their cultures that promote the formation of PCC when mixed with a source of calcium ions like brine. In the process, a portion of the mass of the PCC comes directly from atmospheric carbon dioxide that dissolves in the high-pH culture fluid and is subsequently precipitated - i.e., "captured" - in the calcium carbonate, creating a product called carbon-capture PCC. The vision for the Convergence Accelerator is to build a prototype of our new biomanufacturing process at a desalination facility, then produce, test, and optimize nutraceutical and carbon-capture PCC products. In this Phase I planning grant, the objectives are to solidify the team and develop partnerships with industries and end-users, build and test a prototype of the new biomanufacturing process in the laboratory, characterize and refine the products with end-user input, and participate fully in the Convergence Accelerator curriculum and meetings.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.

该融合研究项目将通过开发和测试制造营养素的新生物制造过程（支持人类健康的植物性化合物）和气候友好的碳酸钙（PCC）碳酸钙（PCC）产品，从而影响社会的全球和全球范围。新的生物制造过程将使用微观植物（微藻）将饮用水脱盐植物的废物流变成这些经济有价值的产品的来源。提供新的营养品来源将支持公共卫生和粮食安全。新过程还可以通过向这些市场提供环境可持续和气候友好的PCC来支持依赖PCC的行业 - 包括纸张，塑料，橡胶，墨水，药品和钙强化食品和饮料。通过重复使用淡化废物流，这种新的生物制造过程将通过将废物流转换为产品流来减少污染，并可以抵消与能源密集型淡化过程相关的碳成本，从而有助于水安全和缓解气候变化。此外，在混凝土中使用气候友好的PCC进行海洋栖息地恢复可能会将这些活动转向碳中性，并提供需要抵消生态系统降解和物种灭绝所需的新材料。项目目标是开发一种新的生物制造过程，该过程是通过使用盐水和微型培训来启发的，从盐水中启发出来，从而使盐水从盐水中产生盐水，并从营养不良的植物中，从而产生脂肪的生物，从而使猫虫从果皮中产生，并开发出猫咪，并从果皮中产生了淡淡的培训，使其源于淡淡的培养基。微藻高ph培养液和盐水。灰事件是自然现象，当碳酸钙沉淀导致白色粉笔色水时发生在湖泊和海洋中。专业的微藻可以在其培养物的流体中产生高ph条件，当与盐水（如盐水）混合时，可以促进PCC的形成。在此过程中，PCC质量的一部分直接来自溶解在高pH培养液中的大气二氧化碳，随后在碳酸钙中沉淀（即“捕获”），创建了一种称为碳接收PCC的产品。收敛加速器的愿景是在淡化设施上建立我们新的生物制造过程的原型，然后生产，测试和优化营养和碳捕获PCC产品。在这阶段I计划赠款中，目标是巩固团队并与行业和最终用户建立合作伙伴关系，建立和测试实验室中新的生物制造过程的原型，并通过最终用户输入来表征和完善产品，并通过nsf的构成奖励，并通过构成奖励，并完全参与了融合的促进性。智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。