Award Data

There is a great need for low-cost, efficient, reliable solar water pumping systems for agriculture. Especially for small farm applications, solar water pumping is a potential solution for crop irrigation and livestock watering where it reduces labor and allows the use of otherwise unusable land. Our Phase I objective is to create a working pump prototype that is as close as possible to a final ma ...

Industry attempts to standardize the biological effects of natural herbal products range from the age old practice of ritualistic harvest at specific times of the day and/or year to the contemporary method of selecting chemical compounds as makers then measuring the potency of the product proportional to the quantity of the marker, the "more is better" concept. However, while chemical marker analy ...

This application addresses the USDA NIFA "Global Food Security and Hunger" primary societal challenge area by developing a countermeasure against a potential agricultural disease threat - Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV). RVFV is an arthropod-borne pathogen that often results in severe morbidity and mortality in both humans and livestock. RVF manifests itself in the vast majority of individuals that ...

Vapors produced during the process of refueling cars are a significant source of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emissions. Uncontrolled emissions cause economic losses and pollute the environment. This problem is exacerbated when the gasoline contains bioethanol because its presence increases the vapor pressure and volatility of the fuel. These increased fuel emissions from ethanol-gasoline ble ...

Agricultural row crops occupy hundreds of million acres of land in the United States. Decisions regarding the implementation of tillage practices in these agricultural areas have a significant effect on other environmental outcomes including soil erosion, water quality, and carbon sequestration. In addition, the effects of tillage practices can vary due to soil type and topographic conditions. The ...

Currently there are no truly effective interventions or therapeutic treatments for White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in farmed shrimp. Current production practices focus on pathogen exclusion by stocking specific pathogen free (SPF) larvae, decontamination and filtration of water to prevent pathogen introduction, and strict biosecurity at hatcheries and grow out pond sites. This is extremely challe ...

Soybean is the major source for production of edible oils worldwide and in United States. Pressing of the soybean into flakes followed by the solvent extraction with hexane (solvent) is most widely practiced for extraction of oil. Separation of solvent from oil-solvent mixture for solvent recovery and reuse is usually carried out by solvent evaporation. Evaporation (or distillation) demands consid ...