Award Data

Plastic Ocean Waste (POW) is accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches at an accelerating rate. Eight million metric tons (8M MT) of plastic is entering the world's oceans each year at a rate of one ton per minute. Alaska represents 53% of the U.S. coastline. During Phase I, we estimated the amount of POW accumulating on Alaska's shorelines at 34,500 to 51,700 MT/yr at a rate of three ton per ...

Concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) is a designation by the U.S. EPA to represent large animal feeding operation with more than 1000 animal units confined on site for more than 45 days during the year. CAFOs emit many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere. Current multi-gas sensor technologies are not sufficiently portable and are utilized either offline in a lab-setting o ...

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used extensively since the 1940s due to their chemical stability and unique thermophysical properties. Those same properties make PFAS extremely recalcitrant environmental pollutants, and bioaccumulative toxins. Regulations are rapidly being established by U.S. states, including Michigan, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, beholding municipal water u ...

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking proposals that will improve the U.S. recycling system.PKS Consulting is an Alaska-based small technology firm that proposes the development of a Mobile Plastic Ocean Waste (POW) Recycler that can be moved from community to community to produce Recycled Plastic Lumber (RPL) products from locally collected POW. Fishing gear is primarily composed of Poly ...

Repeated use of aqueous firefighting foams containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has contaminated hundreds of sites. To delineate the extent of contamination, many of these sites are undergoing intensive site investigations and generating large quantities of investigation derived wastes (IDW). Current disposal practices of landfilling or incineration are costly and burdensome. This ...

This project will fully develop NEWTON-AR, an augmented reality (AR) application-based engineering, computer science, and STEM puzzle game for children in kindergarten to grade three. Intended for use in classrooms, after-school programs, and at home, NEWTON-AR will combine AR, engineering, simulation, making, and programming into a sandbox game where students create, modify, simulate, prototype, ...

The team will develop a prototype of an augmented reality (AR) sandbox with foundational learning experiences in engineering and computer science for students in kindergarten to grade 2. The prototype will embed puzzle challenges within the AR interface to facilitate experiences that will mirror traditional real-world play-building activities. At the end of Phase I, in a pilot study in three class ...

Bridger Photonics, Inc. proposes developing a drone-based Gas Mapping LiDAR™ sensor to mitigate the loss of valuable product across the Oil & Gas supply chain.The sensor will uncover leaks and physical changes to infrastructure and pipeline right-of-ways using high-resolution 3D topographical imagery with methane gas concentration overlays.The technology will enable reliable detection, precise l ...

The presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment represents an emerging issue due to their stability, bioaccumulation potential, and risks to human and ecological well-being. There is a critical need to develop sampling methods for PFAS to assess risks and inform remedial investigations and feasibility studies (RI/FS) at locations where historical releases have elevate ...

Nutrient pollution caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the water is a costly and challenging environmental problem with widespread negative health and ecological effects. During Phase I XploSafe successfully confirmed the technical feasibility of using its proprietary low-cost biodegradable sorbents to passively adsorb target nutrient ions (ammonium, nitrate, urea, and phosphate) from prim ...