Award Data

This research aims to develop decision support tools for better maintenance and planning of renewable energy generation and storage assets using atmospheric, local weather, and on-ground environmental data blended with site-, regional- and national-generation data. The study will use a combination of these data to understand the relationship between non-cloud cover based atmospheric conditions and ...

We propose to use Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) measurements as an early warning system, to cue on-site validation of the soiling station and any available meteorological (MET) station data to validate if a work order to clean deposited particulate matter is necessary. This would move from reactive maintenance – often weeks delayed, to proactive maintenance – getting ahead of the weather impact ...

Plastic Ocean Waste (POW) is accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches at an accelerating rate. Eight million metric tons (8M MT) of plastic is entering the world's oceans each year at a rate of one ton per minute. Alaska represents 53% of the U.S. coastline. During Phase I, we estimated the amount of POW accumulating on Alaska's shorelines at 34,500 to 51,700 MT/yr at a rate of three ton per ...

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used extensively since the 1940s due to their chemical stability and unique thermophysical properties. Those same properties make PFAS extremely recalcitrant environmental pollutants, and bioaccumulative toxins. Regulations are rapidly being established by U.S. states, including Michigan, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, beholding municipal water u ...

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking proposals that will improve the U.S. recycling system.PKS Consulting is an Alaska-based small technology firm that proposes the development of a Mobile Plastic Ocean Waste (POW) Recycler that can be moved from community to community to produce Recycled Plastic Lumber (RPL) products from locally collected POW. Fishing gear is primarily composed of Poly ...

The Phase I project showed that novel urethane-functional (NUF) resins could be produced that were free of isocyanates and very useful for one-component, ambient-cured (OCAC) coatings. Resins for OCAC coatings, which are expected to be valued at $5.7 billion by 2019, are used to produce a variety of coatings including oil-based paints, wood stains, varnishes, and aerosol paints._x000D_ Phase I re ...

Due to their exceptional properties, polyurethane coatings are used extensively in our society.Unfortunately, the socyanate-functional components used in the curing of polyurethanes are generally toxic. Thus, there is a need for polyurethane resins that can be cured without the use of isocyanate-functional components. In addition to enabling the production of polyurethane coatings that are free ...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging data needs to be calibrated using a universal standard. NIST and the ISMRM SQRM committee have developed the NIST/NIST MR phantom. The group had two phantoms manufactured to their specifications and these phantoms have been imaged at numerous imaging facilities. Sigma-K now proposes to develop a complete manufacturing method that will produce 50 MRI phantoms. These phant ...

The U.S. EPA Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule (S2DDBR) requires potable water utilities to maintain total trihalomethane (TTHM) concentrations below 80µg/L at all locations within distribution systems beginning in 2012 due to adverse health-effect risks. Air stripping effectively volatilizes TTHMs due to their low Henry’s law constants. However, commercially available ai ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will employ the large scale; highly reliable boron-doped ultrananocrystalline diamond (BD-UNCD®) electrodes developed during Phase I project to build and test Electrochemical Anodic Oxidation process (EAOP) cells and systems that can destroy Contaminants of Emerging Concern more economically and effectively than competing AOPs. BD-UN ...