Award Data

Biomass is a renewable resource with high potential to achieve cost effective, reliable, and environmentally friendly energy to the American consumer, but yet is still deemed inefficient. First, current methodologies only allow conversion of cellulosic materials into biofuel, leaving energy-rich hemicellulosic material unutilized. Second, even though carbohydrate conversion is the focus of biomass ...

Globalization of our seafood supply, the lack of international standards, and the numerous reported instances of fraudulent labeling of seafood products has reduced consumer confidence in seafood across the country. In addition, concerns of this rampant mislabeling of seafood products, which could lead to seafood safety issues, have prompted many to look at traceability as a means to track seafood ...

Agricultural equipment powered using hydrocarbon fuels emit VOCs, CO, soot, particulates, and NOx. However, controlling and reducing these emissions can impose a heavy economic burden on farmers and the agricultural industry. For example, equipment powered by two cycle engines cannot economically employ catalytic converter technology for highway gasoline and diesel engines. Thus, economic control ...

Red alder is the predominant commercial hardwood species of the Pacific Northwest. It is an early successional species that rapidly regenerates following fire or clearcutting and normally precedes the establishment of the historically preferred Douglas-fir. As such, past conifer forestry management practices were designed to speed the transition to Douglas-fir through alder eradication efforts. Co ...

While significant progress has been made in the conversion of cellulosic biomass to fuel ethanol, it has not yet been commercialized on a wide-scale because a number of important technical problems remain unsolved. If these challenges can be overcome, cellulosic ethanol is much more promising as a renewable bio-fuel than corn ethanol because it produces a much greater net greenhouse gas (GHG) emis ...

Pectin is, after cellulose, the second most abundant polymer on earth; but its level of utilization in industrial products is very low. High molecular weight pectin is used in food products where it suffers from stagnant markets and high production costs due to the use of organic solvents, low concentration of extracted pectin and generation of soluble sugar streams which burden the waste treatmen ...

Within the past 2-3 years, an abundance of "eco-friendly" to-go hot beverage cups have appeared in the marketplace. Upon closer examination, many of these to-go cups for hot drinks have questionable environmental appeal and a strong "green-washing" market spin. The Tea Spot has designed a patent pending to-go system for loose leaf tea. Our plan is to manufacture these to-go systems for coffee and ...

Utility companies have made huge investments in large capacity coal-fired power plants. The political winds are shifting, however, resulting in more and more pressure on utilities to reduce reliance on the use of coal with its resulting CO2 greenhouse gas missions. These utility companies potentially face losing the ability to continue operating these plants, along with the dependable and economic ...

The proposed project builds on prior research that has shown the potential for energy recovery from lignocellulosic biomass through an integrated anaerobic digestion (iADs) process. A 2005 USDA report places the current production of corn stover at 75 million dry tons per year and stated that this represents a major untapped source of agricultural biomass. The innovative anaerobic digestion proces ...

Internal parasites are the greatest health and production challenge for sheep and goats in southeastern states and others during warm, humid conditions (including Northeastern, Midwestern and irrigated pastures in Western US). Haemonchus contortus or barber pole worm thrives in warm, humid climates and is a voracious blood feeder that can cause anemia and death to the animal if left untreated. Dew ...