Award Data

Considerable progress has been made in reducing emissions from stationary and highway sources. However, new emission standards require that new off-road (non-road) diesel engines achieve emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other species comparable to those from on-road sources. Additionally, biofuel (e.g., biodiesel) powered vehicles offer the potential for increased NOx emissions. There are cu ...

The diagnostic systems in use in military machines are large and expensive. Other military machines could benefit from diagnostic and prognostic systems, but cannot afford the added size, weight and expense. Orbital Research proposes to address this issue by adapting the rugged ASICs that it has presently in development, and those planned for future development, into a single System on a Chip ( ...

This project will develop and evaluate a new process for converting biomass waste into diesel fuel. The diesel made from biomass will be a direct substitute for ultra low-sulfur diesel (defined by ASTM D 975). The biomass waste will first be converted into pyrolysis oil and then upgraded to diesel. The process uses a new approach to upgrading pyrolysis bio oil and does not produce excessive by-pro ...

Smart Polymers Research Corporation proposes to create a fluorescence-based fully automated flow sensor for real-time environmental detection of biothreat pathogens in water or in the air. The sensor will be utilizing pathogen-specific aptamers chemically modified with highly fluorescent quantum dots. The detection will be performed in the flow mode and provide results in real time. Based on the f ...

Concrete, a primary building construction material, is the world’s most consumed man-made material. About 500 million tons of concrete were consumed in the United States in 2005. Production of cement (the binder in concrete) is an energy-intensive process and it contributes about 5 percent to global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Production of each ton of cement results in the emission of 1 ton ...

Every year, an estimated 19.5 million illnesses occur in the United States due to consumption of unsafe drinking water and result in productivity losses of the order of $20 billion. The burden of waterborne illnesses is expected to increase due to the emergence of more virulent microorganisms and an increase in the number of sensitive subpopulations, which include older people, young children, pre ...

The increasing use of membrane filtration in water treatment application has focused greater attention on the need to optimize chemical pretreatment to minimize membrane fouling; for example, the City of Minneapolis draws water from the Mississippi River and has found that control of lime-softening is critical to protect its new ultrafiltration plant. Alkalinity is a fundamental and widely measure ...

Metal working fluids (MWFs) are designed to cool and lubricate manufacturing operations. This $1 billion industry has not changed much in decades and today has a number of problems, including an inability to meet new machining challenges (e.g., titanium machining in aerospace applications), Employee Health and Safety (EH&S) concerns, toxic waste disposal, and cost. Today’s MWFs represent a signi ...

Interior wood composite panels are widely used for furniture, bookshelves, kitchen cabinets, and flooring, and are predominately made with carcinogenic urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin. A new formaldehyde-free, environmentally friendly wood adhesive that mainly consists of abundant, renewable and readily available soybean flour and a novel curing agent have been developed in a laboratory. The novel cu ...

Green builders and designers, urban planners, engineers and architects, and watershed manager working with green infrastructure, low impact development (LID), storm water management, water quality improvement, total maximum daily load (TMDL) designated stream segments, and carbon footprint reduction programs need more high performance, cost-effective, green technologies to design and implement in ...