The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) awarded a $259,494 Project Grant to the University of Connecticut (UConn). The grant supports collaborative research to develop an innovative system for directly capturing CO2 from air and electrochemically converting it into value-added liquid fuels. This work involves engineering a novel polymer-nanocatalyst membrane that utilizes natural cellulose and a cobalt nanosheet catalyst to facilitate efficient CO2 capture and...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.084 - NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships) provides $305,000 to Inertial Technologies, Inc. to develop a supersonic inertial separation system for carbon capture from industrial exhaust streams. The goal is to simultaneously freeze water and CO2 from flue gas, then separate the solid particles using a swirling flow design. This enables capturing CO2 that can be sold for downstream conversion into value-added...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded a $299,980 Project Grant to the University of Southern California (USC) for the period of August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2026. The purpose of this grant is to investigate mass and energy transfer mechanisms in stimuli-responsive "smart" sorbent materials for direct air capture of carbon dioxide (CO2). The research aims to develop new sorbent materials that can release...
This $244,018 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports the development of a novel hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) technology to efficiently recover nutrients from animal manure and produce value-added engineered carbon materials. The project aims to: 1) develop a pH-swing HTC process to recover nitrogen and phosphorus into a liquid fertilizer from wet animal manures; 2) analyze the effects of different modification...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) has awarded a $344,481 project grant to the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Contracts and Grants Division. The grant, titled "CAREER: In-Situ Capture and Conversion of CO2 to Hydrocarbons," will fund research to develop perovskite-based materials capable of efficiently capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and catalyzing its conversion to valuable hydrocarbon compounds like syngas, ethane, and...
This Project Grant award of $175,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research to elucidate the cycling and deactivation mechanisms of earth-abundant CO2 looping sorbents, specifically calcium oxide (CaO), under precise temperature control. The key objectives are to use computational modeling and experiments to study the fundamental chemical reactions between CO2 and CaO, design processes to increase CO2 absorption capacity and sorbent service...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $463,693 to the University of Houston System to develop an innovative electrochemical carbon capture (ECC) process. The project aims to advance ECC technology by employing engineered soft interfaces at liquid-liquid interfaces, addressing limitations of current ECC systems. The research will focus on enhancing CO2 separation performance and system energetics, utilizing scanning...
This $452,715 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports the development of 3D architectures that embed porous gas adsorbent materials inside high thermal conductivity substrates. The goal is to improve thermal control and enhance gas sorption performance for applications such as air purification, carbon capture, molecular sensing, gas separations, and catalysis. The key research objectives include developing methodologies to...
This Project Grant award, provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program, supports the development of a light-based, energy-generating carbon removal process. The $274,094 award to Banyu Carbon Inc. aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering or reusing captured carbon dioxide. Key objectives include improving the resistance of the proprietary photoacid catalyst to degradation and replacing expensive...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program provides $272,488.00 to Victory Over Carbon, Inc. to develop a novel direct air carbon capture technology. The project aims to address key challenges in achieving gigaton-scale direct air carbon capture, which could enable a trillion-dollar industry and 3 million jobs in the U.S. The proposed system utilizes a centrifuge design to reduce infrastructure and...