Award Data

The purpose of this USDA SBIR Phase I project is to determine the feasibility of a novel wood fiber based composite material for structural elements of marine structures, particularly the structural frame of the aquaculture pens manufactured by InnovaSea Systems.InnovaSea has been manufacturing and marketing the Aquapod spherical geodesic fish pens since 2006 and has learned much in the years sinc ...

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 ...

Suspended ceiling tiles are widely used in commercial and residential construction because they offer flexibility and easy access to utilities. Most of the available tiles absorb water, resulting in sagging, staining, and mold/mildew growth. They also contain potentially hazardous chemicals and release airborne fibers when broken or cut. Existing tiles are not durable, requiring frequent replaceme ...

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 ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will develop and ready for commercialization a scalable, low-cost process for purification of water containing Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) using anodic oxidation with boron-doped ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD®) thin films. Resent research demonstrated that there is considerable potential for the development of electrochemica ...

"With the rapid growth of biodiesel industry, the production of crude glycerol as one of major biodiesel byproducts has been dramatically increased. Fully utilizing such a large quantity of crude glycerol is critical to the sustainability of biodiesel industry. Lactic acid is an important industrial chemical that is widely used as a food additive for flavoring and preservative, a moistener in co ...

Since wild fish stocks began their drastic decline in the early 1990s, the aquaculture sector is the fastest growing food sector in the world. Production from U.S. marine aquaculture accounts for only 1.5 percent of the domestic seafood supply, leaving an enormous growth potential for the production of safe, high-quality seafood that is farmed under federal and state environmental standards. Howev ...

The Illinois Soybean Association and the USDA initiated and supported the original research project that produced the prototype Global Food in 3?D and underlies the proposed new product, Global Feed in 3?D. The expected user groups were small and mid?sized farmer leaders and allied analysts and stakeholders as a result of the research's original design and goals. The research outcome of this ...

The national demand for energy and need for economic development has been driving efforts to create a domestic biofuels industry. Significant investment by both the public and private sectors have resulted in progress but recent government rule making has set ambitious requirements for renewable fuel supplies that can not be met with existing technologies or feedstocks. This significant unmet mark ...