SBIR Phase I: Recovering Damaged Coastal Ecosystems Using Upcycled Food Waste

Award ID: 2528313

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the development of local manufacturing methods for synthesizing low-cost soil amendment and shoreline restoration products using local food waste inputs. Coastal erosion, declining soil health, and soil acidification threaten both ecosystems and human infrastructure across the United States. Traditional fertilizer products often rely on mined inputs, which are expensive, contribute to carbon emissions, and degrade land/marine environments during extraction. This project proposes transforming farmers food waste and seafood restaurant seashell waste into regenerative soil fertilizers and sea brick products, aimed at enhancing plant growth, improving soil health, and bolstering coastlines erosion resiliency. This effort aligns with national sustainability goals by reducing methane emissions from food waste, revitalizing degraded coastal and agricultural areas, and offering affordable alternatives to synthetic fertilizers. The proposed technology may lead to environmental solutions that transform Americas food waste (FW) liabilities into valuable soil amendments products. It could also create jobs in manufacturing such sustainable products, provide communities with access to local, renewable inputs, and position the United States as a leader in climate-adaptive infrastructure. By leveraging circular economy principles, this project may have a lasting impact on both environmental outcomes and economic resilience. The proposed project will build on the work done to develop a calcified FW fertilizer, using seashells to provide the minerals, with ozone(O3) and infrared(IR) irradiation to chemically modify them. The resulting shell particles irreversibly react with O3 treated FW particles, bypassing the industry-wide bottleneck of nutrient leeching. The resultant material can be formed into biodegradable sea bricks for erosion control or granulated for agricultural use. Phase I R&D and pilot-scale field tests will be used to evaluate product stability, ecological restorative properties, and agricultural yield improvements. Key metrics include plant growth rates, soil pH, soil organic matter, and soil conductivity. The ability of the materials to reduce coastal erosion and store CO2 as biomass will also be experimentally measured. The outcomes of this work will demonstrate the technical feasibility of the radical localization, mobilization, and manufacturing of local FW inputs into soil regenerative products at scale and measure the carbon emission reduction reduction potential the proposed closed-looped manufacturing procedures. The innovation underlying this technology addresses complex challenges at the intersection of coastal community climate adaptation, local FW waste valorization, and sustainable agriculture practices. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Rajesh Mehta