| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | February 4, 2021 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 21, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 2109685 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ruth Shuman
rshuman@nsf.gov (703)292-2160 TI Translational Impacts TIP Dir for Tech, Innovation, & Partnerships |
| Start Date: | January 15, 2021 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $50,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $50,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1050 STEWART ST. LAS CRUCES NM US 88003 (575)646-1590 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Las Cruces NM US 88003-8002 |
| Primary Place of Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | I-Corps |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a technology that can convert yard trimmings disposed as municipal solid waste (MSW; 35 million tons produced annually in the US), into an environmentally benign anti-icer through anaerobic digestion. The proposed anti-icer is a potent alternative to traditional deicers, as it may be applied to road surfaces before a snow storm hits the targeted area, eliminating the need for deicer operations to be performed during the storm. One of the most commonly-used anti-icers is sodium chloride (NaCl, salt brine). While salt brine typically has been used as an anti-icer on roadways and in airports, the use of the salt brine corrodes vehicles, bridges, and asphalt and is known to damage the surrounding environment. It is also known that salt brine has a high transport rate in the surrounding environments and low hold-over time. Organic alternatives to the salt brine in the market are calcium-magnesium acetate (CMA) and potassium acetate. However, these products cost about a $700-$1,000 per ton. Commercial potential of the proposed anti-icer will be evaluated as a cost-effective and environmentally benign alternative to its competitors.
This I-Corps project is based on the development of an anti-icer road surface treatment. It is produced from simultaneous use of anaerobic digestion and accelerated bioleaching processes to form a liquid organic anti-icer from digestion of grass or any high protein plant substrates (green waste) co-digested with molasses or any other potassium rich organic material. The two simultaneous processes take place inside an anaerobic digester filled with green waste and molasses and water at optimum proportions and equipped with a recirculation system. In the process of anaerobic digestion, insoluble organic compounds are hydrolyzed and broken into simpler soluble organic compounds by the naturally occurring anaerobic bacteria present in the grass. During this process, acetate is produced, and through a reaction with potassium present in molasses, it forms potassium acetate, which may be used as liquid organic anti-icer. Preliminary results have shown that the proposed anti-icer may be effective at temperatures as low as 15?F.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The U.S. spends approximately $2.3 billion annually to keep highways free of ice and snow. The products used for ice and snow maintenance are normally chloride-based anti-icers such as salt brine which are widely used by the Departments of Transportation (DOTs) as an effective approach to prevent ice from forming on surface transportation infrastructure (i.e. roads, bridges, and highways). However, the chloride based anti-icers are generally corrosive and cause damage to infrastructures such as roads, bridges and vehicles. In addition, the chloride based anti-icers result in groundwater salinity, and soil and environmental contamination [1, 2]. As a result, transition from chloride based anti-icing agents to organic-based anti-icers has attracted significant attention during the past couple of decades [3]
Our project team has developed an organic-based anti-icer called Bio-melt that can function at temperature as low as 17Fo. The preliminary market and commercialization analysis conducted by our Project Team during NSF I-Corps (NSF Award Number 2109685) in spring 2021 identified DOTs in the Great Lakes region (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) as the initial target market for the technology. These DOTs spend 5 to 10 % of their annual winter maintenance operation budgets on anti-icing fluids, mainly salt brine. Due to environmental issues (i.e. groundwater salinity contamination) and low effective temperature of salt brine, these DOTs are actively looking for effective liquid agro-based anti-icers in the market [3].
Following our market and commercialization analysis, our team is in the process of submitting a proposal to NSF-PFI-TT for further development, scale up and field demonstration of the Bio-melt product.
The project proposes cost-effective production of an agro-based anti-icer produced from digestion of organic waste (i.e. grass clipping waste) with potassium rich source (i.e. molasses) and is based upon NSF research Engineering Research Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG) (Award 1449501). The proposed technology combines anaerobic digestion, hydrolysis and accelerated bio-leaching processes to produce the agro-based anti-icer from organic waste (i.e. grass clipping waste) with the help of potassium rich source (i.e. molasses) as a catalyst.
The proposed Bio-melt product is a green and environmental-friendly technology which is bio-degradable, non-toxic, metal-free and requires minimum energy. With the proposed NSF PFI-TT project, various technical challenges including commercial scaling, stability (shelf life) and solubility will be addressed.
REFERENCE CITED
- Lv J., Song Y., Jiang L. and Wang J. 2014. Bio-inspired strategies for anti-icing. ACS Nano 8, 3152– 3169 .
- Fay L., and Shi X. 2012. Environmental Impacts of Chemicals for Snow and Ice Control: State of the Knowledge. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 223(5), 2751–2770.
- Nazari MH., Shi X. 2019. Developing renewable agro-based anti-icers for sustainable winter road maintenance operations. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 31 (12), 04019299
Last Modified: 05/26/2022
Modified by: Zohrab A Samani
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