Award Data

A key technology with immediate potential for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with fossil fuel power plants is carbon sequestration. To ensure successful CO2 sequestration, the ability to monitor leakage from the geologic storage sites and the pipelines delivering the CO2 to those sites is paramount. The goal of this SBIR is to accelerate the development of a low-cost fiber- ...

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act. The ruling allows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate CO2 emissions. Such regulation will entail monitoring a wide variety of pollution sources, including automobile exhaust systems, industrial emission sources, and carbon sequestration sites. With presently availa ...

This SBIR project addresses the problem of waste and low manufacturing yield in the typical thin film manufacturing process. It has the potential to make a significant impact on energy utilization and become a critical component to making thin film processes cost effective, leading to waste-free manufacturing. Thin film deposition processes are extensively used in man-critical industries with sign ...

Distributed energy offers a means of providing reliable, cost-effective electrical power to residents of rural communities. These requirements often cannot be met by current distribution methods due to limitation of remote central station power generation and transmission. With the migration of population from urban areas to rural areas and the increased power demands placed on electrical grids fr ...

There is a finite amount of fossil fuels, which will only last a few more decades. Therefore, it is imperative to develop renewable sources of energy. An area that has recently attracted a lot of attention is the conversion of renewable oils to biodiesel, primarily through the methanolysis of triglycerides. The use of an immobilized lipase as a heterogeneous biocatalyst to transform oils into biod ...

In this program, Omega Optics, Inc. and the University of Texas, Austin, propose a novel lab-on-chip photonic crystal slot waveguide infrared spectrometer for detection and spectroscopic analysis of BTEX hydrocarbons (benzene and toluene) in water and greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) in air. The device utilizes the unique dispersive properties of slow light photonic crystal waveguides together with ...

The objective of this project is to develop CO2 absorption columns with rates of production that will enable CO2 capture for less than $20 per ton of CO2. The research will make use of a nano-composite sorbent material called interstitial “Spiderwebs”TM. The Spiderweb material was conceived to overcome a fundamental kinetic limitation of conventional solid sorbents for molecular and ionic sepa ...

A1-CHEM FUELS, INC. HAS A PATENT PENDING FOR AN ELECTROTHER-MAL DEVICE TO PRODUCE MEDIUM TO HIGH BTU FUEL GAS FROM WASTEHYDROCARBON SOURCES. THIS UNIT OPERATES BY PRODUCING A HIGH-VOLTAGE ALTERNATING CURRENT ELECTRIC DISCHARGE ACROSS THE INTERFACE BETWEEN A WASTE HYDROCARBON AND WATER. THE EXTREMELY HIGH TEMPERATURE WITHIN THE ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE IS SUFFICIENT TO CAUSE LOCALIZED FAST PYROLYSIS OF ...

N/A

The occurrence of causative agents such as Cryptosporidium parvum and other pathogens in water supplies presents a critical issue. Transmitted through water and animals, these organisms provide a reservoir of infection, which results in the excretion of the environmentally stable cysts or oocysts that are impervious to inactivation by many drinking water disinfectants. Cryptosporidium infections a ...