Award Data

Refrigerants are known to have harmful impacts on the environment. It is essential that those that are particularly harmful with a high global warming potential (GWP) are recovered correctly for proper recycling or disposal. Unfortunately, all too often, refrigerant is not properly recovered either due to system failure, technician error, or unincentivized industry practice. With implementation of ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of airborne pathogens and their role in transmitting infection throughout the population. The threat of airborne pathogens extends beyond SARS-CoV-2. Diseases caused by airborne viruses (Influenza), bacteria (Legionnaires’ disease and Tuberculosis), and fungi (aspergillosis) are also prevalent, with Influenza estimated to cause 200,000–500,000 wor ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of the role airborne pathogens play in transmitting infection and will leave a legacy of focused attention on indoor air quality for the foreseeable future. Indoor enclosed spaces are high-risk environments for increased transmission of aerosolized pathogens like COVID-19, SARS, influenza, and other yet-to-emerge diseases. Many situations, including o ...

As the single largest consumer of materials and energy use worldwide, the construction sector remains a prime target for materials reuse reform. (Krausmann et al., 2009; De Ia Rue du Can & Price, 2008). Construction and ongoing operation of the built environment extracts a significant amount of resources -- and on an ongoing basis. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), buildings ac ...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as a pervasive and persistent threat to drinking water throughout the world. Called ‘forever chemicals” because their high stability leads PFAS to build up in the environment. PFAS accumulates in the blood from exposures and is associated with various cancers and other illnesses. There is an urgent need for a technology that can both remo ...

Mass transit ridership in every major metropolitan city has precipitously dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A wide range of technologies are needed to bring the SARS-CoV-2 virus under control and prevent future viral outbreaks. Infectious quantities of viruses can survive on contaminated surfaces for days requiring continuous cleaning to ensure clean, virus free surfaces. The objective of this ...

The EPA has established health advisory levels at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for combined PFAS concentration. Water resources are susceptible to contamination by PFAS release from industry and landfill sites. Consequently, there is a need for on-site pretreatment technologies for PFASs in industrial wastewater. Electrochemical treatment has been shown to be effective for the mineralization of PFA ...

Aging infrastructure is a major challenge faced by the water utilities in the USA and across the globe, and with an overall rating of D by the ASCE, water distribution systems are no exception. Approximately 240,000 water main breaks occur in US systems every year with a cost of at least $3.6 billion. As such, innovative, economical, and sustainable solutions are needed in renewing the water trans ...

The novel RFCAT technology will allow for safe and rapid decontamination of biological agents on railroad and subway cars. The technology creates biocidal conditions on external and internal surfaces of the rail and subway cars. The technology has been demonstrated on building materials and will be modified for the surfaces found in rail and subway cars. Additionally the system will kill odor and ...

Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) is developing a regenerable high efficiency filter technology for direct removal of gaseous pollutants such as VOCs and CO2 from indoor air. In addition to controllably improving indoor air quality (IAQ), the direct removal of these pollutants will reduce the requirement for building ventilation with outdoor make-up air currently used to dilute the concentration of ...