Award Data

A great number of technological advancements have been spurred by the unique properties of the rare earth elements (REE)- This widespread application has made the REE absolute necessities for sustaining healthy technological, scientific, and economic growth- In nearly all of these technologies, there are no currently viable substitutes for the REE with equivalent performance- Processes based on co ...

While renewable diesel and biodiesel production is projected to increase over the next several years, feedstock supplies are limited by mature markets for yellow grease and refined vegetable oils- Brown grease refers to organic fats, oils, and greases extracted from wastewater residuals- Brown grease has the potential to alleviate the shortage of biofuel feedstock, but it is dirty, inconsistent in ...

Reliable, high-sensitivity and high-resolution photon detectors, which can alleviate major limitations imposed by photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), for future high energy physics (HEP) and nuclear physics (NP) experiments, are of great interest to DOE- Other fields that could greatly benefit from these detectors include Cherenkov telescopes in astrophysics, positron emission tomography (PET) in medica ...

Traditional heavy-media methods of coal beneficiation are expensive and have inherent environmental liabilities- X-ray separation of coal is a promising new technology that cuts the cost from mine to market with no environmental liabilities- The efficiency of x-ray separation of coal should be improved by employing air valves with faster response times, but no data exists to quantify that improvem ...

With the continuous growth of hydraulic fracking the volume of fracking wastewater that needs to be treated prior to disposal is also growing and is a major challenge and concern for society- The improper treatment of wastewater prior to disposal has multiple consequences to the environment, including contamination to the soil and drinking water source- The recycling and reuse of water and chemica ...

Atomically precise manufacturing (APM) is an emerging manufacturing technology in which materials, structures, devices, and finished goods are fabricated such that every atom is positioned at an exactly-specified location relative to the other atoms- However, one factor limiting this technology is the short lifetime of the probe that manipulates individual atoms- The key goal of this program is to ...

To ensure continued access to orbit for United States government and commercial payloads, attractive replacement candidates for foreign-made propulsion components must be identified and the associated technology matured. The innovation proposed herein will identify and further maturation of a domestically available, oxidation-resistant, high-temperature C/SiC material candidate for launch vehicle ...

A novel hybrid acoustic emission (AE) and guided wave (GW) inspection approach for radar towers inspection is presented. Keeping aging radar sites (many are over 50 years old) in good repair is important because they are critical intelligence components that provide advanced aircraft notification. This proposed work will continue development of new, patent-pending shear-type AE sensors, and apply ...

Sudden structural failure caused by stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in aircraft components is becoming a severe safety threat to Air Force aircraft and other aviation vehicles. Detection of SCC often occurs late in the damage development cycle, in which fast-growing macroscale cracking has already developed. This significantly increases depot maintenance cost and can negatively impact aircraft ava ...

Earths outer radiation belt, which consists of electrons with hundreds of keV to MeV energies, is a highly dynamic and driven environment.The large variations in electron flux, if unaccounted for, can cause satellites that travel through this complex region to experience anomalous behavior ranging from temporary satellite outages due to electrostatic discharge events in system electronics to poten ...