Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 06b

Description

The transition of cellulosic nanomaterials to pilot-scale production makes them feasible for use in a variety of industrial applications including oil and gas, wastewater treatment, electronics, and others. A significant hindrance for further advancement is the difficulty of drying these materials, and long distance shipping of them is not economical while they contain significant water content. One of the major manufacturing challenges is to obtain dry cellulosic nanomaterials while maintaining their nanoscale dimensions. Development of dewatering technology that implements the dielectrophoretic enhancement of integrated electrospray in vacuum and lyophilization, allows the drying of nanocellulose without compromising nanoscaling. Atomization of the nanomaterial pulp allows mitigation of the agglomeration of nanocellulose particles and dramatically increases the evaporation of generated droplets due to extended surface area and high curvature. During the Phase I effort, plans call for building, evaluating, improving, and demonstrating a benchtop prototype of a reactor with a dielectrophoretic enhancement of dewatering, to define the degree of improvement compared to other dewatering approaches, and to develop the engineering concept for the demonstration, pilot-scale reactor in Phase II.