Leland Stanford Junior University

Brian J Cantwell

Craig S Criddle

Yaniv D Scherson

George F Wells

David Altman

M Arif Karabeyoglu

Xing Xie

Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell

Kevin Lohner

A bioreactor designed to produce NO from organic nitrogen and/or reactive nitrogen in waste is coupled to a hardware reactor device in which the NO is consumed in a gas phase chemical reaction, e.g., catalytic decomposition to form oxygen and nitrogen gas. Heat from the exothermic reaction may be used to generate power. The bioreactor may use communities of autotrophic microorganisms such as those capable of nitrifier denitrification, ammonia oxidizing bacteria, and/or ammonia oxidizing archaea. A portion of the NO dissolved in aqueous effluent from the bioreactor may be separated to increase the amount of gas phase NO product. The amount of the gas phase NO in a gas stream may also be concentrated prior to undergoing the chemical reaction. The NO may alternatively be used as an oxidant or co-oxidant in a combustion reaction, e.g., in the combustion of methane.

Microbial production of nitrous oxide coupled with chemical reaction of gaseous nitrous oxide

A bioreactor designed to produce NO from organic nitrogen and/or reactive nitrogen in waste is coupled to a hardware reactor device in which the NO is consumed in a gas phase chemical reaction, e.g., catalytic decomposition to form oxygen and nitrogen gas. Heat from the exothermic reaction may be used to generate power. The NO may alternatively be used as an oxidant or co-oxidant in a combustion reaction, e.g., in the combustion of methane. The bioreactor may have various designs including a two-stage bioreactor, a hollow-fiber membrane bioreactor, or a sequencing batch reactor. The bioreactor may involve Fe(II)-mediated reduction of nitrite to nitrous oxide.

A method to produce NO from organic nitrogen and/or reactive nitrogen in waste uses a bioreactor coupled to a hardware reactor device in which the NO is consumed in a gas phase chemical reaction, e.g., catalytic decomposition to form oxygen and nitrogen gas. Heat from the exothermic reaction may be used to generate power. The NO may alternatively be used as an oxidant or co-oxidant in a combustion reaction, e.g., in the combustion of methane.

Microbial production of nitrous oxide coupled with chemical reaction of gaseous nitrous oxide including phosphorus recovery and nitrite reduction to nitrous oxide

This invention comprises a new process for developing high regression rate propellants for application to hybrid rockets and solid fuel ramjets. The process involves the use of a criterion to identify propellants which form an unstable liquid layer on the melting surface of the propellant. Entrainment of droplets from the unstable liquid-gas interface can substantially increase propellant mass transfer leading to much higher surface regression rates over those that can be achieved with conventional hybrid propellants. The main reason is that entrainment is not limited by heat transfer to the propellant from the combustion zone. The process has been used to identify a new class of non-cryogenic hybrid fuels whose regression rate characteristics can be tailored for a given mission. The fuel can be used as the basis for a simpler hybrid rocket design with reduced cost, reduced complexity and increased performance.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Brian J Cantwell