Award Data

Fresh water cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (HAB), have potentially many adverse environmental impacts. For instance, bloom mats of filamentous algae are believed to reduce ambient light levels below those required for submerged aquatic vegetation to survive. Blue-green algae, form blooms that make a surface scum and have been associated with low levels of dissolved oxygen that can be lethal ...

Gasification provides a potential means of deriving clean energy from biomass waste materials. One of the greatest obstacles to the effective gasification of animal and farm waste is the slagging behavior of the residual ash at temperatures that yield the most efficient gasification performance. Many wastes are particularly problematic for dry ash gasification processes, especially waste from co ...

Acrolein (CH2=CHCHO) has been identified by the U.S. Clean Air Act as a hazardous air pollutant because of its adverse health effect, particularly on respiratory systems. There are both anthropogenic and natural sources of acrolein in the environment. Acrolein is produced by combustion sources (e.g. vehicle exhaust, prescribed agricultural burning, cigarette smoke) and industrial sources, includi ...

Direct Energy Solutions proposes to design, fabricate and test a basic prototype decontamination device for building protection from chemical and biological weapons attack and the general enhancement of indoor air quality. The decontamination device generates metastable Singlet Delta Oxygen (SDO), O2 (a1¿), a strong oxidant of biological and chemical pathogens, from direct optical excitation of ...

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 ...

This SBIR Phase II proposal addresses development of a field-portable, amperometric biosensor for monitoring organophosphorus (OP) and carbamate insecticides in water. The miniaturized biosensor will use a modified screen-printed microelectrode with high sensitivity and lowlimit of detection for OP and carbamate pesticides. This biosensor will be selective for OPs and carbamates. The enzyme use ...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) remain a significant environmental threat even though manufacturing of PCBs was discontinued 30 years ago. PCBs are toxic amd suspected to carcinogenic to humans and are therefore carefully monitored. Due to the chemical and thermal stability of PCBs in the environment and the continued use of rtansformers containing these chemicals, very specific regulations are ...

The proposed sorbents will have potential applications in i) industrial wastewater treatment plants, ii) municipal wastewater treatment plants, iii) nuclear waste treatment plants, iv) drinking water treatment plants, v) several types of existing point-of-use and point-of-entry water purifying systems, and vi) for remediation of various mercury contaminated sites using permeable reactive barrier ( ...

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) occur in aquatic environments when conditions trigger an increase in the abundance of organisms that produce toxins. The toxins are transferred through the food web where they affect and even kill zooplankton, shellfish, fish, birds, marine mammals, and possibly humans. HABs have been estimated to cost the U.S. economy as much as $50 million per year due to the closure ...

The opportunity of this proposal is to develop a new ¿Sparker¿ process for treating organic hazardous contaminants in water and liquid waste, including persistent and bioaccumulative and toxic chemical (PBT¿s), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH¿s). Sparker technology also has potential for in-situ treatment of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPL¿s) and sludge. Sparkers ...