Award Data

NOX EMISSIONS FROM COMBUSTION PROCESSES ARE A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES SUCH AS ACID RAIN, VEGETATION DAMAGE, SMOG AND CHANGES IN THE OZONE LAYER. A NUMBER OF STRATEGIES DIRECTED AT REDUCING NOX EMISSIONS WOULD BENEFIT FROM REAL TIME NOX EMISSIONS MEASUREMENT SINCE THIS WOULD ALLOW FEEDBACK CONTROL OF THE PROCESS. CURRENT INSTRUMENTATION ALLOWS COST EFFECTIVE MONITORING OF VERY L ...

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This proposal addresses environmental problems associated with indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy consumption in residential buildings. As building envelopes become increasingly tight to satisfy energy efficiency requirements, health conditions that are correlated with indoor air quality - such as asthma and allergic diseases - are on the rise. The most effective strategy to improve IAQ is vent ...

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

A large number of potentially harmful chemicals and pollutants in the environment make comprehensive experimental chemical testing cost prohibitive and unrealistic. Methods that can decrease the required experimental work and aid in the streamlining of this process would provide a valuable tool in this area. Computational cellular modeling can provide a significant improvement in linking exposur ...

Perchlorate is a widely-used component of solid fuel, missile and rocket propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics. It has been shown to reduce iodide uptake into the thyroid gland. The EPA has found Perchlorate contamination in 18 states and believes contamination may exist in as many as 39 states. In early January 2005, the National Academy of sciences, in an EPA-sponsored study, recommended a ...

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The sensitivity of low-cost, portable volatile organic compound (VOC) detectors currently is use is low, which limits their application in many situations. More sensitive detectors are more expensive and less robust and not suitable for field use. This proposal describes the development of a membrane-based preconcentrator able to concentrate trace amounts of VOC contaminants to levels that can b ...

Picarro will build a trace gas sensor based on Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy (CRDS) targeting the acrolein absorption band in 1623 nm for environmental monitoring. Acrolein is a ubiquitous airborn pollutant the sources of which include burning vegetation (e.g., forest fires), waste incinerators, furnaces, fireplace, gasoline-and diesel-engine emissions, power plants, polyethelene combustion, cigar ...