Award Data

America needs a clean, affordable, reliable and sustainable product or system to obtain heat for residences in cold climates using renewable, carbon-neutral, plentiful, low-cost biomass fuels of diverse types found close to the location of usage. The available biomass could heat hundreds of thousands of homes, and costly natural gas could be directed to higher-value usage. Gasifiers” are device ...

"The beneficial effects of earthworms on soil structure, chemistry, microbiology, and crop yield are well demonstrated. Advanced Prairie, Inc. has developed a method of harvesting and encapsulating earthworm cocoons to make them available for mass market distribution. A previous SBIR proposal demonstrated the storage (at least five months) and shipping viability of the encapsulated cocoons. The pr ...

Lead in household paint and dust is a serious health hazard, as low level lead exposure can result in a number of adverse health effects, especially in children. Onsite and real time detection and quantification of lead in paint/dust are very important to homeowners and certified lead based paint removal professionals. Toward this end, both field-portable equipment (such as X ray fluorescence ins ...

Reduction in dependency of imported petroleum and the quest to identify renewable energy sources has lead to a search for innovative biofuels derived from renewable biomass, that promise long-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Butanol is one possible biofuel. It is an industrial fuel that can be produced from crops using acetone-butanol (AB) fermentation by butanolagenic microbes, such ...

Perhaps the most critical safety function of food packaging is to prevent microbial recontamination of foods made shelf-stable by some processing method. Such protection is considered passive in that the packaging material simply provides a physical barrier to the reentry of microorganisms. However, it is within the capacity of packaging and other food-contact surfaces to play an ameli ...

The contribution of wind energy to the nations energy portfolio is limited despite an increased interest in renewable energy by both individual consumers and governments. At the same time, the prices for fossil fuel energy sources used in heating are rising at an increasing rate. This research supports the development of a system that uses energy from wind to supply heat to individual buildings. I ...

Reduction in dependency on imported petroleum and the quest to identify renewable energy sources has led to a search for innovative biofuels derived from renewable biomass, which promise long-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Butanol is one possible biofuel. It is an industrial fuel that can be produced from crops using acetone-butanol (AB) fermentation by butanolagenic microbes, such a ...

Lead in household paint and dust is a serious health hazard, as low-level lead exposure can result in a number of adverse health effects, especially in children. Onsite and real-time detection and quantification of lead in paint/dust are very important to homeowners and certified lead-based paint removal professionals. Toward this end, both field-portable equipment (such as X-ray fluorescence inst ...

Potentially insufficient corn stock supplies make necessary the development of industrial yeast strains for converting alternative cellulosic materials for renewable fuel sources. This project investigates the feasibility and develops the capability of using Holographic Optical Trapping as an automated manipulation tool for yeast cells, to characterize and evaluate yeast strains.

Lead in household paint and dust is a serious health hazard as low level lead exposure can result in a number o adverse health effects, especially in children. On-site and real-time detection and quantification of lead in the paint/dust is very important to homeowners and certified lead-based paint removal professionals. Toward this end, both field-portable equipment (such as x-ray fluorescence ...