Award Data

Up until the early twentieth century, several commodity chemicals were produced by the pyrolysis of hardwoods (e.g., methanol, acetic acid, acetone) or the extraction of softwoods (turpentine, terpenes, rosins, pitches, and tars). The expected long term increase in petroleum and natural gas prices will cause a gradual but steady return to biomass feedstocks over the next several decades. Other dri ...

At present, there are opaque candles based-on hydrogenated vegetable oil waxes, and premium transparent container gel candles based on mineral oil gel. However, there are no commercialized technologies for transparent gel candles based-on vegetable oils. The purpose of this project is to synthesize a class of new polymers which can form a trasparent vegetable oil gel for making the clear container ...

Domestic ethanol production has grown substantially over the last 30 years due to a growth in national energy security concerns, more stringent Federal standards for vehicle emissions, and government agricultural incentives. The recently signed Federal energy legislation requires an increase in ethanol production to 7.5 billion gallons a year within the next 10 years. There is, however, a recogniz ...

The alternative sweetener, xylitol, occupies an interesting market niche. Xylitol, a sugar alcohol, is not metabolized via the insulin pathway, and thus has found use as a sweetener for diabetes patients. Yet xylitol has seen limited success in the marketplace. Its relatively high production costs and low availability have restricted its adoption as an alternative sweetener. We believe the introdu ...

Hydrogen peroxide is fast becoming the oxidant, bleach, disinfectant, and biocide of choice for treating aqueous waste streams. It is a powerful oxidizer, stronger than chlorine and chlorine dioxide, and as it decomposes into only oxygen and water, it avoids many of the toxicity and persistence issues associated with other chemical treatments. However, the use of hydrogen peroxide to treat wastewa ...

Farms are faced with increasing problems managing manure from animal operations. Alternate innovative methods to deal with the handling and distribution of the manure solids materials and nutrients are needed to allow farms to economically comply with increased regulations. The purpose of this project is to further the development of a concept to utilize farm animal waste material in a manner that ...

IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE CONSUMER, IT IS IMPORTANT TO DETER MINE THE SHELF-LIFE OF PERISHABLES AND MONITOR IT. THE DEVICES AVAILABLE COMMERCIALLY ARE EXPENSIVE, BULKY, AND DO NOT MIMIC THE DETERIORATION OF PERISHABLES. AN IDEAL DEVICE FOR MONITORING RESIDUAL SHELF-LIFE OF PERISHABLE IS PROPOSED. THE DEVICE WILL BE SIMPLE, INEXPENSIVE, MIMICS THE DETERIORATION OF PERISHABLES AND HAS SEVERAL OTHER DE ...

In order to diversify agriculture and enhance agriculture's role as a reliable supplier of raw materials to industry, new biobased products from agricultural materials need to be developed. This proposal will prove the technical feasibility of producing a biobased natural plastic resin which can be economically blow molded into useful products. Metabolix will use a combination of its proprietary h ...

THE INDIAN MEAL MOTH (IMM), PLODIA INTERPUNCTELLA (HUBNER), IS A STORED PRODUCTS PEST OF WORLDWIDE IMPORTANCE. DUE TO ITS INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE, IMM HAS BECOME DIFFICULT TO CON TROL. A GRANULOSIS VIRUS (PIGV) HAS SHOWN CONSIDERABLE POTENTIAL IN CONTROLLING IMM. MICROGENESYS,INC. PROPOSES TO CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS TO INVESTIGATE THE COMMERCIAL APPLICATION OF PIGV. THE MOST ECONOMICAL METHOD OF PIGV P ...

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