Award Data

Processing of vegetable oils is complicated by the need to remove free fatty acids. Washing with caustic is a viable process but is inefficient because fatty acids and caustic form soaps which cause emulsions. These emulsions cause a yield loss of 1-1.5% or 160-240 Million lb/yr of soybean oil alone. The purpose of this project is to improve yields and energy efficiency in vegetable oil processing ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to extend the current high frequency limit of acoustic analysis by two orders of magnitude and facilitate numerical simulation of extremely large sound structure interaction problems. The proposed method will advance the state of the art in numerical acoustics by integrating the Fast Multipole Method (FMM) with the direct and ind ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will study effective models for carrying out assessments employing challenging puzzle-like questions that incorporate distractor analyses in which meaning is assigned to complex responses. Such distractor analyses apply where there is the possibility that the test taker can give alternative correct, partially correct, and incorrect an ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop Li-ion battery anodes that exploit the unique morphology of low cost carbon nanofibers (CNF). Primary efforts will focus on reduction of irreversible capacity, through a variety of nanofiber surface modification techniques, characterization of the upper limits of anode discharge rate, and development of a new type of comp ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the ability to produce an innovative thermal management solution for electronics components and electronics packaging. The dual trends of electronics miniaturization and increased power consumption have caused many electronics components to hit a "thermal wall." Improved thermal management materials are needed that pro ...

We have developed an enzyme process to produce GOS from whey lactose. GOS is a prebiotic with wide applications in human and animal foods. However, glucose and galactose are also produced in the process and must be removed from GOS because these monosaccharides do not have and can reduce the prebiotic effect. Xanthan gum is a microbial polysaccharide widely used as a suspending, stabilizing, and t ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research project will develop a gas-solid spouted bed bioreactor (SBB) for solid state fermentations (SSF) to produce hydrolytic enzymes (e.g., amylases, phytase, chitinase) and biochemicals (e.g., lactic acid) from solid starch materials. SSF offers higher production rates and easier product recovery compared to submerged fermentation (SmF), ...

Rapid, exploratory diagnostics are needed for the identification of bacteria in complex food and water samples. This project focuses on development of a novel, rapid system for molecular identification of bacteria.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project demonstrates a flexible fuel reformer (FFR) that employs unique mechanical construction and operation to enable extended catalyst life in the presence of sulfur-containing heavy fuels. The FFR utilizes a low-cost heat exchanger that is constructed from metal foil and coated with a dual-function sulfur-tolerant catalyst. Combustion and ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research project addresses the manufacturing and testing of an agricultural byproduct (biomass) as a high performance cement (HPC) for highway applications. There are several benefits of using this processed byproduct, such as significantly increasing the compressive strength, reducing heat of hydration to prevent concrete cracking, and enhan ...