Award Data

One of the most promising biomass sources for fuels and other feedstocks is photosynthetic algae. Algae can produce lipids, proteins, and other compounds, and can be grown in salt water. Current production practices rely on expensive means of harvesting, concentrating, and extracting the algae. This makes the “bio-crude” produced by algae more expensive than petroleum. Recovering the cellular ...

We propose a high performance library of signal processing tools that incorporate a newly developed technique known as fluctuation enhanced sensing (FES) to enhance the novel microsensor developed at NIST. Our goal is to improve the performance of the NIST sensor from two angles. One is to apply our existing proven algorithms to the NIST data. The other one is to incorporate advanced FES concept t ...

G2 proposes to develop an intuitive, interactive SCAP content creation and editing utility that will provide a user-friendly operating environment. The promise of security automation offers the opportunity for great advances in software assurance, security governance/reporting, and ongoing monitoring activities. Hindering that promise is the fact that current data exchange protocols are cumbersome ...

Optimization of generator performance and maximization of output power are difficult to attain in the generation of hydro-power. This is due to the changing water conditions and corresponding changes in the form of available energy. ESL proposes to use self-tuning controls in combination with a suitably chosen and optimized generator driven by hydro-energy and condition it for distribution to then ...

The proposed effort is aimed at the development of a new low-cost technique for extracting the fuel precursor components from marine alga cells. The effort is aimed at reducing the total production costs of alga-derived fuels, up to one-half of which may be attributed to the recovery/extraction process alone. Development of advanced processing technologies such as that proposed here is necessary i ...

Historical methods of reliability assessment are less and less effective as device sizes shrink. Already researchers are unable to package the many advanced devices because the act of cutting the wafer and the packaging operation pre-stresses or destroys the devices resulting in unreliable test results. Additionally the increasing cost of fabricating a wafer with advanced integrated circuit techno ...

We propose to build a compact, rugged airborne laser photoacoustic spectrometric (LPAS) sensor based on a tunable mid-IR diode laser for continuous, real-time measurements of water vapor, and perform field tests to qualify it for dynamic airborne in situ monitoring of upper troposphere water vapor. An innovative diode laser frequency locking technique developed by us will be utilized for tunable d ...

If aquaculture is to become an increasing contributor to the food supply, it is critical that aquaculture feeds become less reliant on marine-derived fishmeal and fish oil as the preferred source of essential proteins and lipids. Not only is the wild fishery from which these products are extracted at maximum sustainable levels of harvest, but also there is increasing concern that these feedstocks ...

If aquaculture is to become an increasing contributor to the food supply, it is critical that aquaculture feeds become less reliant on marine-derived fishmeal and fish oil as the preferred source of essential proteins and lipids. Not only is the wild fishery from which these products are extracted at maximum sustainable levels of harvest, but also there is increasing concern that these feedstocks ...

The aquaculture industry currently consumes 70 percent of the global production of fish oil and 35 percent of total fishmeal. The salmon and trout fish farming sectors alone consume over one half of the world¿s fish oil. And if fish farming continues to grow at the current rate, then by 2010 the aquaculture industry could well be using all of the world¿s fish oil and half of its fishmeal. The ...