Award Data

There is a current need for sensor technologies that can be used for the long-term monitoring of groundwater, specifically for chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as trichloroethylene (TCE). Sensors should meet required pollutant detection levels and be small enough, yet robust, and be capable of being deployed at a reasonable cost. The sensor formant should include flux meters and piezometers to chara ...

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules stipulate that corrective action be taken for drinking water distribution systems that exceed the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), 80 μg/L. Currently, real-time or even periodic monitoring of drinking water is not economically feasible. Available methods use gas chromatography and are expensive and plagued with lon ...

Methane is the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. As public awareness has increased in the last 2 decades, various technologies and process improvements have been developed to curb methane emissions in the United States. There is still a lack of economically viable technology, however, to utilize dilute methane streams containing 10 to 14 percent methane in which th ...

There are 315 to 458 million metric tons of CO2 (or equivalents) emissions per year due to primary aluminum production, of which 21 to 31 million metric tons are estimated to be produced in the United States. In part, this is due to the enormous electrical energy consumption entailed: 548,350 gigawatt hours worldwide (more than the electricity consumed by the whole of Germany), and the energy ine ...

Polyurethane (PU) coatings continue to be a detriment to the environment. As long as compliance leads to higher costs for coatings manufacturers and applicators, tighter regulation will lead to increased resistance by these companies or ultimately will shift production to less-regulated areas. The ideal situation would be if environmentally friendly practices led to lower costs for coatings manufa ...

Engineered wood products, such as plywood and oriented strand board (OSB), are a large and growing segment of the building materials market. They are versatile, inexpensive, and fit well within a forest products strategy of tree farms based on rapidly growing, readily replenished crops. However, they require the use of resins with a manufacturing process that has negative environmental impacts. Th ...

A compact and affordable, microchip-based system for the automated, in situ analysis of inorganic ions in atmospheric aerosols will be develop and verified against traditional, filter-based methods. Our approach combines tow new technologies: (1) a growth tube impactor for particle collection and (2) lab-on-a-chip (LOC) analysis of sulfates and nitrates. The growth tube impactor enlarges indivi ...

A compact and affordable, microchip-based system for the automated, in situ analysis of inorganic ions in atmospheric aerosols will be develop and verified against traditional, filter-based methods. Our approach combines tow new technologies: (1) a growth tube impactor for particle collection and (2) lab-on-a-chip (LOC) analysis of sulfates and nitrates. The growth tube impactor enlarges indivi ...

Concern for the potential health effects of inhaled particulates led to a federal standard governing coarse particles, or PM10, for particles below 10 ¿m and subsequently to a fine particle (PM2.5) standard in 1997, for particles below 2.5 ¿m. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) retained the PM10 standard because all particles below 10 ¿m can penetrate into the pulmonary region. Be ...

Atmospheric aerosol plays an important role in climate and climate change, reduced visibility in urban areas, heterogeneous atmospheric reactions, and acid rain production. Fine aerosol from combustion sources is believed to be an important risk factor for cardiopulmonary disease and mortality. The Phase I objective is to examine the feasibility of producing an inexpensive, compact, robust laser-b ...