Award Data

The environmental impacts of coal bed methane development (CBM) in Montana and the Rocky Mountain States are well documented. CBM exploration is expanding rapidly with the nation's focus on energy independence and the relative ease of extraction. Extraction of CBM necessitates pumping large volumes of often saline discharge waters to the surface. The impacts of those waters include: reductions in ...

Beekeeping is a billion dollar industry, of which honey production plays only a small part. Most beekeepers make their money with crop pollination, charging up to $120 per hive for this service. Crop growers want healthy, strong colonies. It takes a skilled beekeeper about 10 minutes to inspect a colony; the Colony Health Scanner performs the same function in about 2 minutes, and can be operated b ...

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act. The ruling allows the EPA to regulate CO2 emissions. Such regulation will entail monitoring a wide variety of pollution sources including automobile exhaust systems, industrial emission sources, and carbon sequestration sites. With presently available technologies, EPA personnel will ...

Childhood obesity and overweight continue to be one of the greatest public health threats in the United States (DHHS, 2001; Visscher & Seidel, 2001; Rugg, 2004). Childhood weight and behavior are significant predictors of adult overweight and obesity (Whitaker, 1997; Dietz & Gortmaker, 2001; ACS, 2004). While programs that attempt to address weight issues continue to be developed, the problem cont ...

Fugitive emissions of VOCs from gasoline marketing facilities are an energy, safety and environmental issue. All new vehicles made after the year 2000 must have an Onboard Refueling Vapor Recovery System (ORVR) which increase fugitive emissions of refueling stations because of interface between ORVR vehicles and gasoline station underground storage systems (UST). The increase of VOCs is attributed ...

Vegetable oil is commonly extracted from oil seeds using hexane. Separation of oil and solvent (hexane) from this extracted mixture (known as miscella) is usually carried out by solvent evaporation or distillation. Solvent recovery from miscella consumes about 50% of the total energy required for the edible oil production. Solvent evaporation is an energy intensive operation and explosive vapors i ...

The Alaskan fishing industry produces over one million metric tons of by-product and waste annually. Rural coastal Alaska communities have been using the grind and dump method for decades. There is an opportunity to expand existing onshore processing in rural coastal communities and provide additional economic value from fish waste and, simultaneously, reducing or eliminating the impact of current ...

There is potential for a major expansion of windpower production on small and mid-size farms in the United States. Most of the nation?s wind resources are located on farm and ranch land. However, US sales of small (less than 100kW) wind turbines are still relatively limited, amounting to fewer than 7,000 units in 2006. The major reason is the unacceptably high system cost and long payback period o ...

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act.  The ruling allows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate CO2 emissions.  Such regulation will entail monitoring a wide variety of pollution sources including automobile exhaust systems, industrial emission sources, and carbon sequestration sites.  With prese ...

The proposed research is to evaluate the feasibility of a volume transport and holding container for live fish and aquatic product. The proposed container would aerate, cool and circulate water using liquid air and no external power supply. The technology would allow a cost effective means to maintain a hibernation-like torpor in fish to overcome physiological constraints of volume live transport ...