Award Data

Ammonia has an important role in the chemistry of the atmospheric environment and air quality. Ammonia emissions are a major environmental concern, yet they remain poorly quantified. There is a need for a sensitive ammonia instrument to monitor emissions and evaluate their effects on the local and regional environments. An instrument capable of continuous monitoring is required to understand diurn ...

Infrared (IR) imaging is the best method for detecting leaks of pollutant gases, but current technology based on cooled IR imagers is far too expensive ($75,000 to $150,000) for everyday field use by those who need it to meet regulatory limits¿electric and petrochemical utilities, manufacturing plants, and businesses such as supermarkets. Agiltron will demonstrate a new class of IR imager instrum ...

Technology research and development in such areas as next-generation atomic clocks, quantum information processing with trapped ions, and atomic spectroscopy is impeded by the lack of commercially available laser sources that meet the required specifications of wavelength tuning range, output power, frequency-stability and reliability. Arete Associates is developing frequency-stable Optically Pump ...

This proposed project is for the experimental operation and performance review of a pilot-scale anaerobic digester and effluent treatment system for small dairy farms. This would be one of the first digesters built on a dairy farm with a herd size of 50-100 heads. Although digesters are considered to be a valuable addition to a farms manure management strategy, several sources have stated that far ...

This proposed project directly addresses an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calling for improved detection and measurement techniques including screening kits for algal neurotoxins (especially cyanobacterial anatoxin) and cytotoxins in drinking water systems. Bloom-forming cyanobacteria have been observed in water bodies, including drinking water reservoirs all over the world. Several ...

The proposed effort is to build a high resolution, high speed spatial light modulator (SLM) to be used in infrared (IR) spectral projectors. An IR spectral projector produces programmable spectra by dispersing light onto a programmable array, currently digital micromirror devices (DMDs), which either transmit or block selected components of the light. the light is then recombined to form complex s ...

In many urban areas the emission of particulate matter (PM2.5) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from commercial kitchens contribute significantly to a failure to achieve air quality goals. These emissions are chiefly secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) formed by condensation of fats, oils, and other organic materials vaporized during the cooking process. In some instances, these emissions can ...

Clean drinking water is a critical component of the United States infrastructure and is therefore a potential target for terrorists. In addition to physical attacks to the water network including dams, pumping stations and pipelines, there must be vigilance to prevent the water itself from being fouled through the addition of toxic/hazardous chemicals. It is virtually impossible to protect every r ...

In order to realize robust, inexpensive and routine DNA sequencing for medical, forensic, security and defense applications, new approaches must be pursued. One approach is the rapid readout of individual nucleotides as a single strand of DNA is drawn through a nanometer scale aperture. Although progress has been made with nanopore sequencing, some fundamental instrumental and system problems have ...

Eltron Research & Development, Inc. (Eltron) proposes to develop an ion-selective, polymer membrane electrode capable of detecting perchlorate in water at low parts per billion (ppb) concentrations. With the discovery of perchlorate contamination in an increasing number of drinking water sources and an increase in regulation of perchlorate in drinking water, some wells are shut down because no cos ...