AN ELECTRIFYING IDEA
Imagine cleansing wastewater of a harmful yet valuable element while, at the same time, helping to satisfy the world’s growing demand for high-performance batteries.
Transformative research at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, or JSNN, promises to do just that. The project is led by Associate Professor Hemali Rathnayake, assisted by graduate student Sheeba Dawood.
The element lithium is in great demand as a primary component in long-lasting batteries that power everything from smartphones to Tesla electric vehicles.
“There is a huge market for lithium for energy storage applications,” Rathnayake says. Demand is so high that the light-colored substance has been called “white gold.”
The world’s largest lithium deposits are in Australia, with other large concentrations in South America. Yet trace amounts of lithium are quite common, especially in wastewater that is a byproduct of extracting petroleum from the earth.
The traditional method of removing this lightweight metal from petroleum wastewater utilizes evaporating settling ponds, a process that can take up to two years. And that’s just stage one of the reclamation process. Then, dried, settled material must be separated and refined to be of use.
Rathnayake and Dawood have devised a new way to remove lithium from petroleum wastewater – a lithium-trapping filter derived from a renewable resource. This proprietary nanomaterial is able to trap molecules of lithium measuring only one to three nanometers, or about a billionth of a meter.
The Greensboro I-Corps program, and then a $50,000 national I-Corps Award, supported Dawood as she conducted field research in the U.S. petroleum industry, including attending a trade show where she was able to access representatives of many companies.
The researchers determined that their filter can be commercially viable when the lithium content in water is 400 milligrams per liter or greater. Dawood learned that amounts of suspended lithium in wastewater range from 400 to 1500 milligrams per liter. The filtering process is faster and more efficient than the evaporative method, able to process up to 55 gallons per minute.
Another advantage of the nano-filter process, Rathnayake says, is that the polymer used to create the filter is naturally abundant, renewable, and therefore relatively inexpensive.
The petroleum industry, always looking for ways to trim costs and boost profits, has shown much interest in the filter, Dawood says, especially in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Arkansas. Those states mandate that petroleum production wastewater must be cleansed to remove environmentally harmful material.
Nationally, Dawood said, the petroleum industry annually produces 700 billion barrels of wastewater.
Like the gold dust that attracted prospectors to California in 1849, harvesting minute amounts of lithium can turn into real profits. It doesn’t take long to understand why these researchers are excited about their innovation’s potential.
Dawood, a scientist with an entrepreneur’s passion, hopes to create a company that will license the process and take it to market. She’s also identified firms that she might partner with to achieve the same end.
There’s another fascinating aspect to this nanotech innovation: The polymer that makes up the filter is a conductor. Once packed with lithium particles, the filters essentially become batteries, ready to store electricity.
Rathnayake and Dawood have trademarked a brand name for their nascent product, a name that pays homage to UNCG. It will be called Minerva Lithium.TM
Lithium can cost from $5,000 to $10,000 per ton, depending on the source. Mining rock-like lithium carbonate is the most expensive way to attain the metal. Above, Rathnayake and Dawood (left) hold a sample of their proprietary filter, woven at the JSNN using an electrospinning technique. With a lab-created saltwater sample, researchers demonstrate the power of their lithium-trapping method in the time-lapse photo series at the top of this section.
ADVANCING INNOVATION
LaunchUNCG helped qualify UNCG and NC A&T to become an I-Corps Site in 2017, a status achieved by only three other campuses in the UNC System. As an I-Corps Site, the universities received a five-year, $500,000 grant from the NSF.
With that funding, LaunchUNCG facilitates the training of multiple cohorts of innovators each year. As part of the training, cohort members receive funds to cover field research travel expenses. Depending on the product and intended market, research might be accomplished within a limited area, such as the Carolinas or Southeast. Other projects might send researchers farther afield.
The I-Corps funds required may be only a few thousand dollars. But those funds can make a critical, money-saving difference in the long run, especially for graduate students, professors, and recent alumni.
“A thousand bucks can go a long way for somebody who doesn’t have anything,” Streuli says.
I-Corps grant funds can also support building product prototypes, but only after extensive market and design research. Streuli requires at least 30 field interviews with potential customers before considering a prototype grant request.
Researchers with promising innovations that require further development may also apply to the national-level I-Corps program for more training and funds.
Closer to home, LaunchUNCG offers additional avenues of support. Streuli has allied the Greensboro I-Corps site with two state organizations dedicated to fostering entrepreneurs – NC IDEA, a private foundation supporting entrepreneurial endeavors with high-growth potential, and First Flight Venture Center, a non-profit business incubator focused on high-tech companies.
One of First Flight’s programs, called LiftOff, provides assistance and consulting to neophyte companies to help them navigate the early stages of developing their business.
Participation in the LiftOff program costs $5,000, which can be a stretch – or impossible – for an early-stage company. Thanks to a grant from NC IDEA, each year LaunchUNCG may send one team of entrepreneurs to take part in LiftOff. So can each of the other I-Corps Site campuses in North Carolina.
Successfully completing LiftOff gives teams a leg up in applying for top-level National Science Foundation grants from the Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, program. Seed funding awards of up to $1.75 million are available, with no equity stake required.
“My goal,” Streuli says, “is for LaunchUNCG startups to get SBIR grants.”
GREENSBORO I-CORPS
$1.2M development and startup funding
16 companies launched
56 teams
76 graduate and undergraduate students trained
75% minority-led
68% female-led
FOCUSED ON THE KNEE
Much of Professor Shultz’s career research has focused on what may be humanity’s most problematic joint, the knee. Of specific interest to Shultz – and to many trainers, therapists, and physicians – is the condition of the knee’s ligaments.
The amount of ligament looseness, known as knee laxity, is an indicator of joint health. “When force is applied to the tibia – the lower leg bone,” Shultz explains, “knee laxity dictates how much it moves relative to the femur, or thigh bone.”
Knee laxity in young women has been of particular interest to Shultz and other researchers. Too much knee laxity, the kinesiologist says, “is a pretty strong predictor of future knee injury in young athletic females.” In older adults, greater knee laxity increases the risk of – and can also be caused by – osteoarthritis.
Most investigation of knee laxity is accomplished by manipulating the knee by hand. Mastering the process requires significant training and practice, and each diagnosis of knee laxity is highly subjective. The amount of laxity detected determines the treatment regimen prescribed, which may involve exercise, a brace, or perhaps surgery to tighten ligaments.
Devices to measure knee laxity exist, but current instruments measure only one range of motion. The knee, however, has three axes of motion.
Shultz and Schmitz saw need for a device that could accurately measure all aspects of knee laxity. They envisioned a device that would not require intensive training to use. It would be sized to fit on a training table and be light enough for a trainer or medical technician to set up and use. The device would mechanically manipulate the lower leg and measure all three axes of motion.
Profit, Shultz says, was not a motivating factor. The real drivers were a passion for research and knee joint health.
“This was something we needed,” she says. “We needed to continue to advance the research. And then we realized that this has big commercial potential.”
Guided in their quest by LaunchUNCG, the researchers located talent and resources on campus to assist in developing a prototype.
Through the I-Corps program, kinesiology graduate student Elvis Foli conducted field research across the Southeast. He interviewed trainers and physicians for their perspectives on improving knee laxity diagnoses. The information Foli gathered confirmed demand for the device.
Shultz and her team knew what the device needed to accomplish, but the team lacked the engineering expertise necessary to pull off a prototype. This time LaunchUNCG had the expertise in-house. Program manager Seyedin has a background in aeronautics. His engineering expertise cost the team of kinesiologists nothing.
Other campus resources helped the team further minimize costs. Then-kinesiology graduate student James Coppock collaborated with UNCG Libraries, employing their Fusion400 3D printer to create a complex component for the device. Printing the part took more than 36 hours. Not to mention all of the design work leading up to that final step.
Internal UNCG Giant Steps seed funding and a $100,000 NC Biotechnology Center grant are currently supporting the team as they continue to develop the prototype.
It was a decade ago when Shultz and Schmitz first kicked around the idea for a knee laxity diagnostic tool. But they were scientists first, not businesspeople. Without a fertile environment to nurture it, their idea lay dormant.
The development of LaunchUNCG, which created a “one-stop shop” to access all the resources available to academicians turned entrepreneurs, breathed new life into their idea.
With UNCG’s expanding resources in place to help move transformative ideas toward commercialization, the researchers are energized.
“We want to keep people healthy,” Shultz said. “We want to keep people physically active. That’s the goal of what we do in the lab.”
In the top photo, Schmitz, Seyedin, and Shultz discuss next steps for their prototype. In the next photo, graduate student Elvis Foli makes final adjustments to device components created with the university’s 3D printer. This type of printing was a first for UNCG Libraries, according to Digital Media Commons head Dr. Armondo Collins.
