Award Data

As part of its mission to protect human health and the environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops and promotes innovative cleanup strategies that restore contaminated sites to productive use, reduce associated costs, and promotes environmental stewardship. Testing and characterization of the environment for potentially harmful contaminants is a costly endeavor. Current technolo ...

OPTRA has developed a novel approach to phase shift cavity ring down spectroscopy (PS-CRDS) using a Fourier transform infrared (FTlR) modulator to impose the spectrally-dependent amplitude modulation on a broadband JR light source. As with previous PS-CRDS measurements, we excite a resonant cavity with amplitude modulated energy and measure the phase shift of the modulated signal exiting the cavit ...

There has been an alarming increase in toxic cyanobacteria over the past 2 decades, with numerous poisonings reported from Australia to the United States. The increased toxic risks led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to include cyanotoxins on the 1998 Contaminant Candidate List. Most cyanobacterial blooms, however, are not toxic. Furthermore, bloom toxicity will change o ...

Problem Statement: In order to obtain energy independence from conventional sources, there is a significant interest in the production of biogas and“green energy” during wastewater treatment. Due to increased emphasis on sustainability and potential for additional revenue streams, utilities are expected to adopt energy production from digester gas in the near future. Although biogas from tr ...

This EPA SBIR Phase I proposal addresses the need for more widespread electricity usage conservation and user cost reduction via behavioral changes and via efficiency improvement. Efficiency improvements are through equipment and appliance change out but also via long term efficiency monitoring. This needs to be a sustaining level of conservation and efficiency verification as opposed to a one t ...

GVD proposed to develop high performance, solventless and PFOA-free, non-stick mold release coatings based on its novel PTFE fluoropolymer technology. Most commercial mold release agents make use of organic solvents that when liberated during the drying process may have a significant air quality impact. The drying/curing process may also be energy intensive, requiring additional consumption of f ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project addresses the need for improved monitoring technologies for continuous particulate mass and chemical speciation of ambient aerosols. Aerodyne Research, Inc. will develop a prototype Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACMS) that measures ambient aerosol mass and chemical composition of non-refractory submicron aerosol particles in real-tim ...

Boston MicroSystems, Inc. (BMS), proposes to develop a MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) based volatile organic compound (VOC) monitor by integrating analyte-specific polymer films with SiC-AlN microresonators. In this research project, BMS and the Naval Research Laboratory will integrate microresonators and polymer films with functional groups sensitive to aromatic compounds (e.g., benzene an ...

Improved low-flow (50,000 gallons per day) sanitary wastewater treatment systems are needed. CeraMem Corporation¿s proposed approach includes a membrane bioreactor (MBR) using fully proven biological processes for biological oxygen demand oxidation and (optionally) for nutrient removal (i.e., denitrification and phosphorus removal). The technology has as a key inventive element¿a novel, compac ...

The ability to detect and identify trace quantities of hazardous materials has become a significant requirement for protecting the population during the war on terrorism. However, the ability to detect and identify trace concentrations of a wide range of chemicals in the field using a man-portable instrument is severely limited. The ability to quickly and reliably identify toxic industrial chemi ...