CRBBP Process Nutrient Capture
The Problem
A team of scientists from the Global Ocean Oxygen Network (GO2NE) recently issued a report indicating that, due to the loading of nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, along with increasing temperatures, the number of low and zero-oxygen sites in the world's oceans has increased dramatically, in the last 50 years, damaging habitat. See: http://www.fondriest.com/news/earths-oceans-suffocate-climate-change-nutrient-loading-create-dead-zones.htm. We think our recently-patented Combined Remediation Biomass and Bio-Product Production (CRBBP) Process can cost-effectively remove excess phosphorus from Virginia's Chesapeake Bay watershed farm soils, to prevent it from leaking into the Bay, where it will ultimately kill fish and other aquatic life.
Our Proposal
We would like to demonstrate our ability to remove excess phosphorus from Virginia's Chesapeake Bay watershed by using our recently-patented CRBBP Process, by which we plant and then multi-task certain fast-growing and large bio-crops and their resulting biomass, to do good things for people and the planet, less expensively. Using the cost-reducing, multi-tasking features of our CRBBP Process, we are able to share the cost of growing our bio-crops across several tasks, making the cost of each task lower than it would otherwise have been, had we grown our crops for a single task. With help from Virginia Tech University, we would like to plant, this spring, in phosphorus-impacted soils in Virginia's Eastern Shore and in its Shenandoah Valley. And, after harvesting our crops, we will convert that biomass into cost-advantaged bio-products, like the bio-based fillers we make and which, in collaboration with the University of Akron, we blend with bio-polymers, to make stronger, lighter and more heat and water-resistant, circular economy plastics and composites, for which, we are beginning to generate customer interest.
We Assume that...
We are assuming: 1. That there will be continued governmental pressure and resources to solve the nutrient loading problem.
2. That a demonstration of our plantings and bio-products will create interest.
3. That there will be markets for the cost-advantaged bio-products we make.
4. That we will find additional funding to expand our efforts, in Year 2.
5. That we will find additional applications for our CRBBP Process and its bio-products.
6. That global warming and concerns about it will create opportunities for our CRBBP Process.
Constraints to Overcome
The economic benefits of our multi-tasking approach allows us to share the cost of growing and harvesting our bio-crops across several tasks, making the crop planting and harvesting costs a lot less expensive, than if they were applied to only one task, like nutrient reduction. So, in addition to demonstrating the nutrient reduction efficacy of our CRBBP Process, it is important to also develop a discrete set of cost-advantaged bio-products, which markets will demand. As evidenced by the recent award of our patent, this combination of activities has not been offered before, in such a combined and multi-tasking package. One of the constraints we will face is the reluctance of farmers and industry to take on new practices and products, so we are hoping that demo plantings of our bio-crops and making and testing some of of bio-products will overcome such reluctance.
Current Work
We are working with Virginia Tech to secure expertise and planting sites in the Eastern Shore and Shenandoah Valley watersheds of the Chesapeake Bay, to conduct demo bio-crop plantings and poultry bedding tests. We are also working with the University of Akron to jointly make circular economy bio-plastics and composites and encourage customer testing. We will be writing grant applications to expand the project size, conducting customer interviews and brainstorming new applications for the CRBBP Process.
Current Needs
We need funding to cover planting and testing costs, biomass processing and lab tests for fillers and bio-plastics samples. We now see our CRBBP Process as a cost-effective remediation, CO 2 capture, carbon re-use and carbon sequestration mechanism, because the same process (photosynthesis) that helps our bio-crops grow so fast, also capture lots of carbon dioxide (CO 2). Therefore, we are looking for CO 2 capture expertise. We have sought to estimate and compare the relative biomass production and CO 2 capture potential of trees and bio-crops, preliminary estimates, by an independent third party, project that 100-acre sites, each planted with either young Pine Trees, Switchgrass, or the Biomass Sorghum, we currently use, will, at the end of 15 years, yield the following tonnages of CO 2 from the atmosphere: Pine Trees, 5,900 tons CO2; Switchgrass, 10,700 tons CO2; and Biomass Sorghum, 20,400 tons CO2. As you will note, the Biomass Sorghum, we currently use, captures most.