| NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 19, 2010 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 19, 2010 |
| Award Number: | 1052697 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Robert M. Wellek
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | January 1, 2011 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2011 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $50,367.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $50,367.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
615 W 131ST ST NEW YORK NY US 10027-7922 (212)854-6851 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
615 W 131ST ST NEW YORK NY US 10027-7922 |
| 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): | INTERFAC PROCESSES & THERMODYN |
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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
1052697
Somasundaran
The investigators will evaluate greener, nano-scale, bio-surfactants based solutions to the problems of spreading of oil and cleaning of the spill from the shore and Marsh lands. Oil soaked in beach sands and marsh lands has already affected the ecosystem dramatically. Besides, the issues persist for several years and environmentally benign solutions are still lacking. Thus an urgent need is to develop greener solutions to preserve the ecosystem. Our approach will be utilization of bio-surfactants to study the solubilization of crude droplets without the influence of shear. It is also important to remove the solubilized oil from beach sands and marsh lands with minimum disturbance to the areas. First, to model the removal of oil from beach sand in a laboratory set up, the work will include quantifying coalescence, reaction and transport in several multiphase systems in transparent porous media pack. Furthermore we will treat beach sand with bio-surfactants followed by separation of oil using flotation or hydrocyclones. Second, solubilized oil in marsh lands can be treated to form a separate phase over water and be removed. To explore this idea, the investigators will determine rheological properties of oil solubilized using biopolymers and also by manipulating conditions such as pH, and salinity to obtain desired separation. For long term solution, the PIs will explore microbial-oil interactions to degrade oil. Though all the above mentioned procedures are applicable, the oil has formed a thick layer and cruds in and around the water in Marsh lands. The PIs will evaluate technologies to mechanically remove such oil by various techniques as flotation and using hydrophobic fibers.
Intellectual Merit: The project will provide fundamental understanding of the structure-property relationships of various greener bio-surfactants in oil solubilization. Fundamental aspects will relate to spatial arrangement of functional groups, effect of carbon chain length and biodegradability of the greener surfactants. Further, the proposed study of transport through packed bed should yield fundamental insight into the mechanisms of attachment and resultant changes in wettability on the flow of the oil through complex porous systems.
Broader Impact: With growing global concern over the toxicity and poor biodegradability of surfactants/polymers used in of industries, recent focus has been on application of greener bio-surfactants/biopolymers. Various sectors interested in such greener reagents range from mineral processing, alternative energy, personal care, food industries, and petroleum industries. The research findings on structure property evaluation should provide valuable insight in evaluating reagents for their greenness based on the structure of the molecules. The multidisciplinary subject of the proposed research will attract talented students from diverse groups.
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.
Today, surfactants (dispersants) are used for oil dispersion in oil spills, and, in this regard, the use of conventional surfactants has spurred debate with regard to their toxicity. Therefore, development of greener surfactants is more environmentally benign, especially to minimize the possible toxicity effects of surfactants on sea habitats. In this investigation (NSF RAPID grant), various bacillus subtilis-derived biosurfactants were evaluated for their potential use in oil spill remediation.
As major finding in NSF-RAPID project we have discovered facts and mechanisms that are associated with a phenomenon in the dispersion of oil (n-hexadecane and hexane) in the form of varying size (50 nanometers - 2 millimeters) droplets upon mixing with an aqueous solution comprising microbial entities and proteins. The microbial entities used were bacterial (Bacillus Subtilis) cells, extracellular bacterial reagents, and proteins (Fibronectin). The mechanism of oil dispersion of oil was via encapsulation of oil droplets by a film comprising of extracellular bacterial entities and/or proteins. We also found that the films encapsulating the oil droplets were stable under typical atmospheric conditions (25 0C, 1 atm pressure) for more than an hour and the film demonstrated considerable elastic properties.
The phenomenon related facts that were derived are (1) protein based films were found to be part of a three dimensional network where they constituted its walls, (2) The 3D network is stable under atmospheric conditions for longer time - more than 2 hours, (3) the 3D network is considerably elastic.
Last Modified: 03/30/2012
Modified by: Ponisseril Somasundaran
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