Award Data

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 ...

This Small Business innovation Research project will explore the development of mycofiltration– the use of fungal mycelium as a biologically active filter for removing pathogens from storm water. As pollution from pathogens is the leading cause of critically impaired waters nationwide, with storm water strongly linked to this contamination, this cutting edge research is a timely response to the ...

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 ...

We hypothesize that infrared (IR) cameras mounted on unmanned tethered helium balloons accessed via a wireless network can remotely sense water quality in mixing zones at site scales. Mixing zones are limited regions in water bodies where the initial dilution of point-source wastewater discharge occurs. Mixing zones are an important component of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination Sy ...

Coal-fired utilities emit 48 tons of elemental mercury into the atmosphere each year. Rising costs and escalating energy demands are expected to increase our reliance on energy produced by these facilities. However, with the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR), mercury emissions from these utilities must ultimately be decreased to 15 tons for Phase II by 2018. To meet this mission cap, new technolo ...

Lead in household paint and dust is a serious health hazard, as low-level lead exposure can result in a number of adverse health effects, especially in children. Onsite and real-time detection and quantification of lead in paint/dust are very important to homeowners and certified lead-based paint removal professionals. Toward this end, both field-portable equipment (such as X-ray fluorescence inst ...

Under the current Hazardous Waste Combustor Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule, heavy metal emissions from the nation’s thermal hazardous waste combustion facilities are estimated using control efficiencies determined during performance testing and estimated metal feed rates during normal operation. The error in estimates of metal emissions from this approach can be on the order of 100 ...

The proposed Phase I SBIR project is expected to lead to the development of a low-cost portable instrument capable of making real-time measurements of phosphate in water and soil samples. The sensor system for this instrument will be based on the highly selective phosphate binding properties of a co-polymer to be synthesized in this research. In many areas, the rapid growth and intensification o ...

Reduction in dependency on imported petroleum and the quest to identify renewable energy sources has led to a search for innovative biofuels derived from renewable biomass, which promise long-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Butanol is one possible biofuel. It is an industrial fuel that can be produced from crops using acetone-butanol (AB) fermentation by butanolagenic microbes, such a ...

Biocidal polymers have begun to find applications in areas where traditional small biocidal molecules are unable to compete. For example, a biocidal polymer based on halamine chemistry has recently been introduced to disinfect water supply on aircrafts. Several major medical supply companies started marketing beddings, linens, and wipes treated with biocidal polymers to hospitals and nursing homes ...