Award Data

In Topic DTRA143-001, a need has been identified to improve monitoring human presence near containers, stored items, and secured areas in order to monitor activities, particularly in remote locations that are not patrolled all day every day. The use of smart materials to detect human presence by sensing volatile organic compounds emanating from the human body is a major area of interest within the ...

American Solar, Inc. proposes to research and analyze two low cost solar air heating systems for poultry houses. The solar heating systems will use an existing poultry house metal roof and a new wall-mounted, solar curtain system to harvest renewable, solar heated air. The solar heated air will displace cold outside ventilation air that would be brought into the house and require heating by non-re ...

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The current dependence of the United States on foreign oil has sparked enormous interest in the use of biofuels, specifically cellulosic biofuels. Cellulosic biofuels are a carbon neutral, renewable resource, and their use could drastically curtail total carbon dioxide emissions while also reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Worldwide biomass energy resources are estimated at 2 x 1021 J per y ...

In controlled environment agricultural (CEA) systems (greenhouses and indoor plant production facilities) light is the most energy consuming, and yet the least controlled, input factor for plant growth. Plants can dissipate up to 80% of the absorbed light energy as heat through physiological protective mechanisms (non photochemical quenching) and this light cannot be used for plant growth. Light e ...

This project is a subset of a larger project which has the goal of generating electricity from changes in atmospheric temperature through space and time. The near term goal is to provide a higly durable power source for agricultural sensors so that farmers will not have to change batteries or rely on brittle photovoltaic cells. Longer term applications include scaling the tecnology to power remote ...

Spoilage losses of fresh fruits and vegetables are estimated to account for 20% of all edible food losses in the U.S. alone. This loss is significantly higher in developing countries due to less sophisticated harvesting and processing equipment and practices. For instance, it is believed that 40% of all food production is lost due to spoilage in India. Microbial contamination of the harvested prod ...

Luna Innovations has developed next generation textiles for the control of agricultural insects that maximize plant growth, provide insect control, and minimize or eliminate the need for insecticides. These spacer fabrics have a unique geometry that provides additional separation between the insect and the plant, rendering the plant effectively invisible. It is expected that these textiles would s ...

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has been supporting research of energetic materials and incendiaries as payloads for weapons to defeat targets containing chemical and biological agents. Several universities and Navy labs have been involved in this research, and have narrowed down on a few material formulations that are efficient biocides. These formulations contain a chemical ingredient ...

With missions surrounding counterproliferation, nonproliferation and WMD reduction, the stakes for DTRA are incredibly high. Effectively conducting this work involves cooperation and coordination across a wide range of military and government organizations throughout the United States and the world. The decentralization of threats has led to an explosion in the sources and types of data needed to ...