Award Data

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a process to increase the productivity and yield of biobutanol from cultures of solvent-forming Clostridium by treating cultures with recently discovered Clostridium quorum-sensing molecules. The biobutanol fermentation can be difficult to operate due to changes in the producing bacteria driven by unknown biological mechanisms, w ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will prove the feasibility of using a photolytic process to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubbers for carbon capture in power plants. This innovation is based on verified studies showing that photolysis reactions are faster and use significantly less energy than thermal reactions. The carbon-capture proces ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the technical and commercial viability of a novel four-way catalytic converter for lean burn diesel applications that is based on high-surface area nanomaterials applied directly to the inner walls of existing catalytic converter monoliths. While there is ongoing research to integrate diesel particulate filters and the ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the analysis needs for monitoring perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in waste water. Perfluorochemicals (PFCs) are bio-accumulative, extremely persistent and toxic; and there is a huge effort surrounding remediation of PFOA and PFOS contaminated areas. Considering the impacts on environment ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to significantly expand the number of marketable compounds that can be converted from depleted uranium tetrafluoride (DUF4). DUF4 is produced by the reduction of depleted hexafluoride (DUF6), the largest and one of the most toxic waste components of the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Current technology can convert DUF4 into metal ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project addresses unmet analysis needs of froth flotation, a separations process widely used in the mining industry to separate worthless gangue from desired mineral particles. Phase I work has demonstrated the preparation of sensor membranes that permit the measurement of collector chemicals used in flotation suspensions. These sensors have ...

Current technology for detecting long wavelength and very long wavelength infrared light, such as mercury cadmium telluride-based sensors, suffers from deleterious characteristics such as high noise and high cost. Creating detectors that operate in this wavelength range that reduce noise and cost will foster further implementation into remote sensing systems. SVT Associates proposes an innovative ...

The negative-electron-affinity (NEA) photocathodes which produce polarized electrons are a vital component of electron accelerators such as that at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), which is used in the current generation of photocathodes. Quantum efficiencies thus far are on the order of 1%, meaning only 1% of the photons hitting the photocathode result in the emission of an electro ...

Existing silicon on insulator (SOI) pixel detectors which integrate single gate transistors with substrate diodes are limited by two key problems. First, the SOI transistor performance is degraded by the large potentials that must be applied to the substrate to fully deplete the diodes. Secondly, the performance of these SOI pixel detectors degrades with exposure to radiation due to charge trappin ...

Providing a reliable, clean and economical energy source is a priority of the US government. The challenge is to use coal, a secured and economical energy source, to produce clean hydrogen fuel to support domestic and global green economy with near-zero emission. Conventional separation technology and even developmental technology do not satisfy all of the requirements for hydrogen production from ...