CAREER: Sustainable Nanoporous Aerogels from Waste and Byproducts of Agricultural and Food Systems

This CAREER project will develop methods to convert agricultural and food industry wastes into aerogel materials. Aerogels are lightweight, highly porous solids that are used widely in a variety of manufacturing industries. The project will have three major objectives. The first objective will be to demonstrate that food industry byproducts can be processed into aerogels. The second objective will be to measure the properties of the aerogels and find ways to modify those properties. The third objective will be to assess the feasibility of using the aerogels in potential applications. The project will analyze the economic benefits as well as the environmental impacts of aerogel usage. The project will provide educational activities for high school students about the use of gels in the food industry. The project will help STEM workforce development meet the growing needs of the food industry. This CAREER project will help understand aerogel formation from agricultural-food processing byproducts for potential applications in sustainable packaging materials and delivery systems. The project will leverage the properties of aerogels, including low density, high surface area, ultra-low thermal conductivity, and high porosity to transform agriculture and food byproducts into new products for the circular economy. The project will examine interactions among biopolymers from food processing byproducts and their aerogel formation capacities using supercritical carbon dioxide drying. The research will address the role of food biopolymers in aerogel formation, microstructure, functionality, and fate and feasibility. The educational aims of this project will include increasing high school student engagement with food science and engineering through food gel formation education as well as the public and stakeholder education. In addition, a food gel formation-based education strategy will attract students to STEM majors, especially in food science and engineering. 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 Award ID: 2543766 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Ali Ubeyitogullari | Institution: University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, FAYETTEVILLE, AR | Award Amount: $471,477 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2543766 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2543766.html