Award Data

Many commercial hydrophilic solvents form azeotropes or have vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) pinch points with water, which making solvent recovery by conventional distillation difficult. Solvents that form such azeotropes or have such pinch points include isopropyl alcohol (IPA), acetone, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), ethyl acetate, ethanol, butanol and tetrahydrofuran. Molecular sieve drying is p ...

This Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Project develops methods of recycling rare earth alloys from used nickel metal hydride batteries. Alloys of rare earth metal, nickel and other metals provide functional hydride storage materials that are critical to the operation of nickel metal hydride batteries and their applications. The current fleet of hybrid electric vehicles relies upon nick ...

Current anaerobic digester systems are designed for capturing energy from waste from large heads of farm animals. GHD, Inc., a leading manufacturer of anaerobic digesters, has stated that a minimum dairy heard size for economical implementation of a biogas system as 800 cows. These require turbine or diesel generator sets of 100 Kilowatt size and larger, a limiting factor in economically scaling ...

In this SBIR Phase I effort, Los Gatos Research (LGR) proposes to design, build and test a novel Incoherent Cavity Ring Dow Spectroscopy (iCRDS) gas analyzer operating I the mid-infrared (MIR) region for the continuous, real-time, on-site detection of multiple air toxics in ambient air. Specific applications include EPA priorities such as: air quality monitoring at remediation sites, vapor intrus ...

Technical and economical assessments suggest that over the next century the capture and storage of carbon dioxide in deep reservoirs (CCS) may contribute up to 20% of CO2-emission reductions. Reliable and cost-effective monitoring is required to demonstrate that CCS is safe, does not create adverse environmental impacts, and is an effective technology to control CO2 emissions. To meet this goal, ...

Life cycle analysis of biofuel production from lignocellulosic biomass combined with carbon capture has shown the potential to produce negative greenhouse gas emissions. More than a billion dry tons of freshly harvested lignocellulostic biomass is available at moisture contents between 20 and 60%. This material could be used for the sustainable production of biofuels. However, it is a challenge ...