Award Data

The goal of this proposal is to increase the population of the Square-necked Grain Beetle (SNGB), Cathartus quadricollis, in coffee plantations by developing breeding stations that use pheromones and food source odors to increase the population of this predator of Coffee Berry Borer, Hypothenemus hampei, (CBB). SNGB is a major predator of the CBB which causes significant damage to coffee in all co ...

Nearly 50% of produce is wasted throughout the agricultural supply chain. A significant fraction of this loss is through produce senescence, deterioration with age. In almost all plants, senescence is accelerated by ethylene gas, a hormone that plants produce as they age or are damaged. For decades, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) gas has been used to inhibit ethylene action in plants and produce ind ...

The global market for bio-based chemicals is at a critical stage of development. With the focus shifting to development of new bio-based routes to chemicals, new synthesis processes with low capital costs (CAPEX) and high energy efficiency need to be developed that will truly compete with their petroleum derived counterparts. For the market to reach its full potential, techno-economic, health, and ...

As Oregon farmer and Organically Grown Company (OGC) executive director Andy Westlund confesses, being one of the 800,000 small commercial farmers in America is challenging (Hoppe, MacDonald, & Korb 2010). Small farms are highly exposed to market risks, tend to focus on commodities, and have profit margins of just 3-4% (Hoppe, MacDonald, & Korb 2010). As such, small price changes of a single crop ...

Biomass heating/cooking stoves in developing countries do not efficiently cook food or heat houses, while consuming too much fuel and emitting pollution resulting in respiratory illnesses, premature death, and climate change. Affordable technologies found in 1.) EPA approved heating stoves, 2.) DOE funded cooking stoves, and 3.) TEG (thermoelectric generation) lighting devices, improve heating, co ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will employ Nanofiltration to generate sulfate ion feedstocks and high current density on-site generation (synthesis) of the powerful oxidant peroxodisulphate (“persulfate”) with novel, high reliability boron-doped untrananocrystal-line diamond (UNCD) electrodes to dramatically lower the cost of unconventional fossil fuel (FF) waste water ...

A team of EP Purification and the University of Illinois engineer and chemists is pursuing the commercialization of low cost microchannel plasma modules capable of efficiently producing ozone for water treatment. The conservation of water resources for human consumption is a growing national priority. Contamination of ground municipal water by animal manure, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals, for e ...

In 2011, there were 60,000 dairy farms in the US. Of there, 56,600 had herds of fewer than 500 animals. Currently, manure digester installations are only considered economical for herds of at least 500 animals. There require turbine or diesel generator sets of 100 Kilowatt size and larger. The need exists for a smaller waste to energy conversion approach for implementation on small farms were ...

Until early in the 20th century, nitrate fertilizer was manufactured by the electric arc process using water, air, and cheap hydroelectric power. Because this electric arc process was extremely inefficient, by the 1930s the process was replaced by the Haber-Bosch ammonia process which utilizes natural gas to manufacture nitrogen fertilizer in the form of ammonia. Not only does the Haber-Bosch proc ...

GreenWood Resources proposes to develop hybrid poplar growing stock of improved water-use efficiency using a strategy of species selection, inter-specific hybridization, and varietal selection. The proposed work will lead to an increase in the cost-efficiency of current sawlog production and future biomass production at GreenWood's Boardman Tree Farm. Improvement in the physiology of varietal ...