Award Data

C53-20b-271305The prospect of nuclear power produced with advanced molten salt-cooled reactor (MSR) designs has garnered the attention of the Department of Energy in conjunction with the private sector. The salts are used to transfer heat from the reacting fuel. All designs describe a chemically stable salt with a melting point near 500°C, heated by the nuclear reaction to a temperature near 700 ...

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to reimagine bio-manufacturing with a novel platform technology that could boost the yields of many products, including food additives, biomaterials precursors, biofuels, and pharmaceuticals. The technological advancement addresses a fundamental issue that limits conventional bio-fermentation, which is that pro ...

The SolarSurveillance project addresses security and reliability issues of string inverters in solar photovoltaic systems. Existing intrusion detection systems have limitations, hindering their effectiveness in detecting potential cyber threats and system failures. The project aims to develop an effective and adaptive intrusion detection system for string inverters, contributing to the development ...

1. Problem StatementCurrent industrial-scale rare earth element separation technologies are based on solvent extraction schemes which produce large amounts of undesirable chemical waste, including the loss of volatile organic solvents and reagents employed in the treatment of feed streams. These concerns have severely limited the development of U.S.-based rare earth element separation facilities. ...

Subsurface resources present a tremendous opportunity not only for extraction of oil and gas, but also geothermal resources as well as a reservoir for sequestration of carbon and other wastes. When last studied, experts concluded that as much as 200,000 exojoules of untapped energy is available in enhanced geothermal system (EGS) resources: 2,000 times the annual consumption of primary energy cons ...

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to provide an ecofriendly, efficient, and cost affordable adjuvant product to solve the pressing problem of herbicide drift. For years, farmers growing organic, non-genetically modified (non-GM) and specialty crops have incurred financial losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars due to drift of ...

The broader impacts of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project include an artificial intelligence technology designed to detect, identify, and determine levels of insect infestations in fields, providing a comprehensive decision support system in real-time.More efficient and precise insect monitoring would result in reduced chemical insecticide use by increasing the specifi ...

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project involves continued development of technology to extend the therapeutic window of cell-based tissue regeneration therapies. This technology could significantly enhance the scientific understanding of cellular therapies and enable the healing of injuries more rapidly and less invasively than current techniques. A s ...

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) the toxic "forever chemicals" that do notbreak down naturally can be found in sewage sludge and biosolids commonly used as fertilizers.PFAS is an umbrella term for any of the 9000 PFAS compounds known to date currently there areno federal regulations on PFAS compounds. The PFAS contaminants concentrate in feed crops andwater supply which is then ...

An excellent process to generate a biobased product with little environmental impact is to breakdown a single-use product like plastics into its monomers and reuse those monomers to recreatethe original product. If non-biodegradable plastics could be reused as high-quality plastics positiveimpacts on the environment could be realized. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is accumulating inthe environm ...