Award Data

The goal of this proposed study is to demonstrate the use of acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment sludge in the manufacture of Portland cement. Portland cement is composed of a mixture of calcium, silicon, aluminum, and iron oxides. When AMD is neutralized, sludge is precipitated that is composed largely of calcium, iron, and aluminum hydroxides. Disposal of this AMD treatment sludge ...

Picarro, Inc., will build a trace gas sensor based on cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) targeting the acrolein absorption band at 1623 nm for environmental monitoring. Acrolein is a ubiquitous airborne pollutant. Its sources include burning vegetation (e.g., forest fires), waste incinerators, furnaces, fireplace, gasoline- and diesel-engine emissions, power plants, polyethylene ...

Acrolein has been identified by the U.S. Clean Air Act as a hazardous air pollutant because of its adverse health effect, particularly on respiratory systems. There are both anthropogenic and natural sources of acrolein in the environment. Acrolein is produced by combustion sources (e.g., vehicle exhaust, prescribed agricultural burning, cigarette smoke) and industrial sources, i ...

New engine diesel pollution is addressed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Diesel Truck and Buses, low sulfur diesel, and nonroad diesel rules. Unfortunately, slow fleet turnover will extend full implementation. EPA is interested in both retrofit technologies that reduce emissions (particulate matter, volatile organic pollutants, NOx) from diesel sources and new ...

The goal of this Phase I project is to develop a new “Sparker” process for treating organic hazardous contaminants in water and liquid waste, including persistent and bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (PBTs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Sparker technology also has potential for in situ treatment of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) and sludge. Sparkers a ...

Eno River Labs, LLC, (ERL) proposes to develop an onsite testing kit for dioxins that uses fluorescently tagged ssDNA aptamers for selective binding and subsequent screening and quantitative analysis of dioxin in soil sample. Current dioxin field test kits are immunoassay based, which are insufficiently specific and sometimes unreliable. Reliable dioxin testing requires laboratory ...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) remain a significant environmental threat even though manufacturing of PCBs was discontinued 30 years ago. PCBs are toxic and suspected to be carcinogenic to humans and therefore are monitored carefully. Because of the chemical and thermal stability of PCBs in the environment and the continued use of transformers containing these chemicals, very sp ...

The sensitivity of low-cost, portable volatile organic compound (VOC) detectors currently in use is low, which limits their application in many situations. More sensitive detectors are more expensive and less robust and not suitable for field use. This Phase I project involves the development of a membrane-based preconcentrator able to concentrate trace amounts of VOC contaminants to levels that ...

Various oily wastes are generated when performing vehicle maintenance operations, including used oil drained from the engine, the oil filter, and even oil absorbent used to clean up oil that has spilled on the floor. At one time these wastes were placed in landfills. Concerns with oil from these wastes migrating into surface and groundwater has prompted a number of state and federal ...

Gasification provides a potential means of deriving clean energy from biomass waste materials. One of the greatest obstacles to the effective gasification of animal and farm waste is the slagging behavior of the residual ash at temperatures that yield the most efficient gasification performance. Many wastes particularly are problematic for dry ash gasification processes, especially w ...