Catalytic Dephosphorylation Using Ceria Nanocrystals

Unmet Need
Phosphate rock, the primary source of phosphorus for commercial fertilizers, is unevenly distributed around the world, and the natural production of the material will reach its peak before 2040. It is predicted that reserves of phosphate rock will be completely depleted by the end of this century, creating politicoeconomic challenges for regions entirely dependent on imports of high quality phosphorus from the rest of the world, such as the European Union. Moreover, the pollution of phosphate with heavy metals like cadmium and uranium is currently leading to shortages of the right quality of phosphate rock for the production of commercial fertilizer. Thus there is a need for a secondary source of commercial phosphorus to compensate for the limited, and eventually nonexistent, supply from rock phosphates.
 
Technology Overview
One solution towards this sustainability challenge is to extract phosphorus out of phosphorylated biomolecules and recycle it for fertilizer production. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University recently developed nanocrystals capable of initiating a reaction to recover phosphorus from organic wastes and wastewater. This invention presents an opportunity to replace phosphate rocks as the primary source of phosphorus for the production of commercial fertilizer. The disclosed catalyst and reaction method have the potential to not only replace the supply of phosphorus for a global 38 billion dollar fertilizer industry, but also drastically reduce society’s environmental footprint while doing so.
 
Stage of Development
The inventors have internally published calculations of kinetic and performance parameters that evaluated yields of phosphate recovery, rate constants, activation energies, and recyclability for the reaction method initiated by the discovered catalyst. The relationship between the catalyst’s structure and active sites of biowaste for removal of phosphorus is clearly understood. Inventors are now optimizing a final method to provide a commercial solution to solve politicoeconomic challenges related to the shortage of phosphorus for commercial fertilizer.
 
Publications
Katarzyna Gorazda et all. Environmental Research, Volume 158, October 2017, Pages 815
 

Category(s):