Dr. Hogan and Dr. Maier Receive Grant to Study Use of Green Glycolipid Surfactants

Dust Hogan.jpg

University of Arizona Superfund Research Center researchers Dr. David Hogan and Director Dr. Raina Maier have won a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to investigate “Bioinspired Green Glycolipids as Fugitive Dust Mitigation Agents.” The project is a collaborative effort with Dr. Minkyu Kim from UArizona’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Dr. Chett Boxley from GlycoSurf, Inc., with a $ 192,035 budget for 1 year.

Ambient air pollution is a leading contributor to global disease burden that increases morbidity and mortality, and the mining industry accounts for 12% of global particulate matter health impacts. Research efforts will focus on the use of green environmentally-friendly glycolipid surfactants for the suppression of dusts arising from tailings and haul roads in the mining industry. The technology aims to reduce emissions from mining operations and thereby protect human and environmental health in downwind areas at risk of dust emission impacts.

Unlike some existing dust suppression technologies, glycolipids are non-toxic, biodegradable, non-corrosive, and suitable for application with common mining equipment. The SBIR research will investigate a suite of glycolipids produced by GlycoSurf to establish structure/function relationships and application rates to establish the best molecules for dust suppression on both tailings and dirt haul roads. UArizona researchers will then investigate the ability of the best suppression materials to resist environmental stressors like UV radiation, high temperatures, rainfall, and physical disruption to ensure the technology is suitable for implementation in the field.

The results of this research will be used to take testing from the lab-scale to field trials and expand the scope of research to include other sources of dust such as the coal industry and agriculture.