Award Data

Our need:Potatoes are the fourth most consumed crop in the world, after rice, wheat, and corn. According to 2016 data from the USDA, potatoes are also one of the most important agricultural crops in the world and are the leading vegetable produced in the USA. In 2016 alone, 44B pounds of potatoes were produced in the USA with a production value of $3.9B. Moreover, potatoes readily adapt to a wide ...

1. The developed instrument will provide a simple means for in-situ measurement of the bulk density of powdery substances such as powdered foods, cosmetics, chemicals, and soils. In the food and cosmetics processing industries it will provide a monitoring and feedback tool that will improve the control of milling, grinding, mixing and packing processes. In agriculture it will allow the assessment ...

INRS and MDP will collaborate to build an analytical model that demonstrates the probability of success - and opportunities for enhancement - for the redevelopment of idled industrial assets. This model will be developed and refined using the former pulp and paper mill in Old Town, ME., and data supplied by multiple redevelopment efforts elsewhere in the State of Maine. Based upon learnings and ex ...

The consumer demand for organic food is growing faster than the supply. This is particularly true for large-scale row crops that go into staple foods and into animal feeds. As a result, about 80% of the primary organic grain supply is imported. Less-pronounced, but similar imbalances exist for specialty crops. Midwestern BioAg (MBA) has been supporting conventional and organic farmers for 35 years ...

Farmers, crop consultants, and regulators are constantly faced with management/policy decisions that require the integration of current crop and soil conditions, and current and future weather conditions. Farmers and crop consultants must make these management decisions within a regulatory environment that is becoming more restrictive and complex. Regulators are forced to make policy recommendatio ...

More than 70% of U.S. highway-railroad crossing accident fatalities occur at passive rural railroad crossings. Federal and State highway authorities are searching for effective, safe and low-cost active signal devices for these crossings. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that it would cost more than $14 billion to upgrade all passive grade crossings with conventional active railroad cr ...

Ethylene is a growth hormone for fruits and vegetables that is generated by the plants themselves; that is, it acts as a self-ripening agent. Hence, the removal of ethylene gas can play a central role in maintaining the freshness of these products. Whereas the temperature and the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide gases are also important system variables that demand a significant economic invest ...

A. Water must be removed from biodegradable hydraulic fluids as they react with water and degrade insitu. B. Biodegradable hydraulic fluids for farm equipment provide a significant improvement over traditional petroleum based fluids due to decreased pollution. Increase the use and value of biodegradable hydraulic fluids by development of a membrane-based dewatering system.

The use of biodiesel offers significant advantages with regards to the reduction of total harmful engine emissions with the exception of NOx. Biodiesel is a renewable resource and soybean oil is known to be economically viable as a biodiesel fuel. Recent studies from the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that soybean oil alone or blended with #2 diesel fuel results in a significant decrea ...

Summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) are a valuable commercial and recreational species with a natural range from the southern Gulf of Maine to South Carolina. Landings of Atlantic flounders decreased from 90,000 mt in 1984 to 25,000 mt in 1994. Total annual landings of summer flounder peaked at 39.9 million pounds in 1979, but recently from 1990-2003 landings have been much lower, fluctuating ...