Award Data

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 ...

Small drinking water systems consistently provide safe, reliable drinking water to their customers; however challenges of such systems include; lack of financial resources, aging infrastructure, lack of scale, and technical/logistical challenges associated with regulation compliance. The deployment ofnew cost-effective monitoring technologies hold opportunities to substantially advance infrastruct ...

Polyurethanes are now made by reacting two components, one of which has toxic isocyanate groups. Isocyanates are especially hazardous to workers that spray-apply polyurethane paints. Researchers have developed less hazardous ways to make polyurethane, but they have poor performance, cure too slowly or are too expensive. In this project, TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) will develop new non-isocyanate two- ...

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 ...

Large farms and feedlot operations produce large quantities of manure in a small area. Anaerobic digester units capable of producing pipeline quality methane installed at each farm or dairy could be instrumental in eliminating the difficulties associated with the transport of manure off site. If consumed properly, use of manure-derived fuels can also protect against environmental problems such as ...

America needs a clean, affordable, reliable and sustainable product or system to obtain heat for residences in cold climates using renewable, carbon-neutral, plentiful, low-cost biomass fuels of diverse types found close to the location of usage. The available biomass could heat hundreds of thousands of homes, and costly natural gas could be directed to higher-value usage. Gasifiers are devices t ...

Eltron Research & Development, Inc. (Eltron) proposes to develop an ion-selective, polymer membrane electrode capable of detecting perchlorate in water at low parts per billion (ppb) concentrations. With the discovery of perchlorate contamination in an increasing number of drinking water sources and an increase in regulation of perchlorate in drinking water, some wells are shut down because no cos ...

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) contribute to the formation of ground level ozone, aerosols, and acid rain. Considerable progress has been made in reducing emissions from stationary and highway sources. New emissions standards will require that new off-road (non-road) diesel engines achieve emissions of NOx and other species comparable to those from on-road sources. Currently, there are no inexpensive, effe ...

Biodesel is a fuel that is made from processing vegetable oil or animal fats into a liquid fuel that can be combusted in a standard diesel engine. Biodiesel is made from a renewable resource such as soybeans or tallow, does not contribute to global warming, and can be made from domestic resources. However, the growth of the biodiesel industry has been slowed because the current production processe ...