Award Data

Wild fires produce significant air pollution, posing health risks to first responders, residents in nearby areas, and downwind communities. Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity, and the fire season is growing longer. Technologies for measuring air pollutants, including particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon dioxide, over the wide range of levels expected in areas dow ...

An estimated 75% of litter along the shoreline globally is made of plastic. Plastic particles and debris find their way into oceans, rivers, lakes, sediment, and eventually into our bodies. Over 90% of the plastic contamination in the open ocean is attributed to microplastic particles (MP) - i.e. plastic objects with diameter

As wildfires are increasing in prevalence and intensity there is a need for miniaturized, lower cost, and easily portable air sensor systems that provide accurate information to air quality and public health managers, communities, and researchers, so that the public can be protected and timely decisions can be made. Fixed site measurement stations are large and expensive. More dense networks of sm ...

Trace organic compounds are a major challenge for water reuse. N-nitrosamines and NDMA in particular are of concern because they occur in treated wastewaters at levels closest to those of potential human health concern. These are formed as a disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in treatment processes used in water recycling. NDMA limits and monitoring requirements are included in most permitting require ...

This proposal addresses the need for continuous microbial monitoring in water reuse treatment systems. The proposal will lead to a near-real-time, in-situ, reagentless sensor for potable and non-potable water systems. LITMUS (Laser-based Insitu Testing of Microbes with Ultraviolet Spectroscopy) uses deep UV laser excitation to directly detect microbes from the autofluorescence of protein-bound aro ...

In this Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) effort, Nikira Labs Inc. proposes to utilize open-path, mid-infrared cavity enhanced absorption spectrometry to develop a sensitive (< 10 ppt), fast (< 100 seconds), and highly-selective ethylene oxide (EtO) analyzer suitable for field-deployment. The US EPA has concluded that EtO, which is widely used in ethylene glycol production and medical ster ...

The proposed device is a compact, portable, and robust battery-powered analytical instrument for monitoring of ultra-low concentrations of various VOCs in complex backgrounds. Our technology is based on principles of analytical gas chromatography (GC), utilizes scrubbed ambient air as carrier gas and a novel highly integrated multisensory platform as a detector. Due to the implementation of a mult ...

This project will trial thermochemical techniques to recycle construction and demolition debris wood (C&D) into a low-greenhouse gas transportation fuel, while safely sequestering arsenic from C&D contaminants such as copper chromated arsenate (CCA) treated lumber. The amount of C&D wood waste going to landfill each year is not trivial. According to the EPA's latest Sustainable Materials Manageme ...

The Need + Current Technologies: Right now, most walls and wall systems built in the US release carbon into the atmosphere for their production (embodied carbon). Considering that the current climate crisis is worsened by carbon, these wall systems must be designed to store and sequester carbon. Carbon-storing bio-based wall systems, such as straw bale construction, do exist on the residential ma ...

CelNav systems are currently deployed in aerospace systems, but they depend on unobscured views and relatively smooth and predictable motions over long periods of time. Using these systems for SOCOM ground operations defined by highly variable viewing angles and motion profiles goes well beyond simple adaptation, requiring fundamentally new approaches for select sub-systems associated with primary ...