EPA SBIR 2021 Phase I Solicitation

• Monitoring technologies for water reuse

• Treatment technologies for water reuse

Novel real-time or near real-time monitoring technologies and methods that can be utilized to monitor the performance of water reuse treatment systems (for both potable and non-potable water) and allow for rapid detection of upsets to a system and related water quality issues. The ability to detect such issues in a time frame measured in minutes rather than hours or days can allow for rapid responses from facility operators to ensure the protection of public health. Ideally technologies would have potential for robust data management capabilities to support the collection and utilization of the large amount of data collected while providing operators with sufficient information to utilize such data in a meaningful way. Monitoring technologies could target quantification of specific chemical or microbial contaminants that provide an accurate indication of system performance or utilize surrogate parameters to evaluate treatment system performance in way that can be correlated with the removal or inactivation of specific contaminants. Chemicals of interest can include regulated chemicals or other emerging compounds of concern including disinfection byproducts. Microbial contaminants of concern include pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and protozoa.

Novel treatment technologies that ideally are cost effective, energy efficient, do not require intensive maintenance or operational capacity, and could be implemented at small systems including at the decentralized/modular scale. There is specific interest in technologies that 1) do not generate a brine concentrate stream, 2) minimize the generation of a concentrate stream while resulting in a product water that properly removes or inactivates, salts, chemicals, and pathogens or 3) support beneficial reuse of brine concentrate. For concentrate forming technologies such as high-pressure membranes, they should produce less concentrate, manage concentrate better than or improve de-watering of concentrate over currently used technologies. Additional areas of interest include, but are not limited to, membranes that are more resistant to fouling.

• Air monitoring technology for ethylene oxide (EtO)

• Innovative technologies for low-cost, portable systems that can sense intensity and type of odors or volatile organic compounds

• Innovations in technologies and strategies that reduce exposure to radon in buildings

New measurement technology that can identify and quantify EtO emissions over a broad range, inclusive of levels at or below concentrations indicative of long-term risk at the 10-4 risk (0.02 ug/m3, or nominally 12ppt), allow for needed ambient, near source and source testing. Additionally, new technology must be able to distinguish EtO from potential interfering compounds, including but not limited to trans-2-butene or acetaldehyde, that can be confounding across a variety of analyses. Ideally, new technology would provide continuous, real-time online measurements, with a seconds to minutes sampling rate.

Of particular interest are odors and VOCs from industrial and waste management processes and agricultural and animal feeding operations. Important parameters include: affordability and ease of use for private citizen users, capability to sense multiple contaminants, and capability to quantify magnitude or intensity of odors.

Radon mitigation technologies using sub-slab depressurization has been demonstrated for many years but may not be practical for some applications due to cost or building characteristics. Of particular interest are: alternatives to sub-slab depressurization radon mitigation strategies and technologies for low income housing or for high-rise buildings, lower cost alternative materials for soil gas collection plenums in new construction, and effective methods for mitigating radon in well water. Important parameters include: low cost of installation and operation, ease of maintenance and operation, and feasibility of retrofitting the proposed technology.

• Innovative technologies that can destroy PFAS in and from soil, sediment, water and groundwater

The technologies should be widely applicable—i.e., able to address various combinations of PFAS present; various soil types and other matrices to be remediated; and other types of contaminants present. The technology should be effective, easy to use and maintain, and affordable. Applications can be either ex situ (treating excavated or extracted media or waste above ground) or in situ (treating in place). For cleanup, the technologies should be able to destroy (rather than just remove) PFASs and co-occurring contaminants from the target media. Procedures to measure remediation performance are also a critical element. The overall life cycle should be addressed for any proposed treatment technology to ensure removal of contamination from one location or media does not merely transfer the contamination to a different location or media where it may still present a risk to human health or the environment.

• Long-term disinfectant coatings

Development of EPA-registered disinfectant coatings with long-term (weeks/month) residual viricidal effect, for use on frequently touched surfaces, including personal protective equipment (PPE). These coatings must remain viricidal (rendering the virus non-infective in under 2 hours), durable (e.g., withstand normal use and cleaning), and be harmless when dried on surfaces.

• Innovative technologies that prevent food waste

• Innovative technologies that will improve the U.S. recycling system

• New Applications for Industrial Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials and Food Processing Byproducts

• Safe Building Deconstruction Tools or Safety Equipment

• Materials that improve the energy efficiency of buildings

Technologies that prevent food waste in a wide variety of ways, including but not limited to extending the shelf life of perishables (e.g., through improved design of food packaging, food storage, or refrigerators), aiding in inventory management, or quantifying and characterizing waste streams (e.g., through photo recognition) to identify prevention opportunities. Technologies may be intended for use by any part of the post-harvest supply chain – including distributors, processers, food service providers, retailers, or households.

Technologies should support more effective collection, sortation and processing of recycled materials and/or could lead to the increased recyclability of products or increased recycled content within products.

New materials/technologies that safely incorporate industrial non-hazardous secondary materials and food processing byproducts as functional replacement for virgin materials. Non-hazardous secondary materials of interest include, but are not limited to, recycled concrete aggregate (RCA); construction and demolition (C&D) asphalt shingles, brick, drywall and window glass; C&D fines; and, rubber tires. The new materials should have properties (e.g., strength and durability) and costs comparable to currently used analogous materials but lower lifecycle impacts than the analogous materials. Food processing byproducts of interest include, but are not limited to, rice husk ash. New products using food processing byproducts should have the costs comparable to the product they are replacing and properties relevant for the sector in which they will be used.

New tools and/or safety equipment to advance the safe, cost-effective deconstruction of buildings. Concrete, asphalt, and scrap metal are already being diverted at high levels from construction and demolition waste streams. Thus, the deconstruction tools or safety equipment should focus on the recovery of wood or other commonly disposed building materials or the safe removal of materials that are barriers to deconstruction, such as painted drywall. The innovative tool or safety equipment should support the safe reuse of building materials while minimizing damage to the materials and contributing to safer or more efficient deconstruction.

Materials should directly improve energy efficiency of buildings (especially single-family homes), as well as have reduced embodied impacts from manufacturing, production, construction, building repair and maintenance processes.

• New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) that reduce, refine or replace vertebrate animal testing

• Cleaner manufacturing processes for pigments, dyes, paints, and inks

These technologies and approaches should serve to reduce, refine and/or replace vertebrate animal testing of chemical substances or mixtures for human and ecological health risks.

Cleaner manufacturing processes for dyes, paints, and inks that do not create unintentional undesirable byproducts including PCBs. These proposed processes could include innovative technologies for coloration such as biomimicry and structural color, that do not require traditional pigments, dyes, paints, and inks or unintentional undesirable byproducts including PCBs.