Description:
Proposed projects may present novel process and product technologies for pollution prevention; technologies that dramatically reduce water usage in industrial and domestic/municipal use; technologies that lead to more efficient use of water as a resource; and technologies leading to substantial reduction or even elimination of industrial water usage by developing sustainable alternatives. Technologies proposed could involve improvements in the energy efficiency of water/wastewater treatment approaches; remove challenging pollutants from industrial and municipal wastewater that have a significant short term and/or long term environmental, ecological, and economic impact. Technologies proposed should be significant breakthroughs or enhancements relative to the current state of the art and seek to address current and emerging industrial/municipal and agricultural challenges with water conservation, use, recycle, and treatment. The proposed technology projects could span a broad spectrum of operational arenas including point of use, portable, off-grid, and fixed installations for domestic, municipal, industrial, and agricultural applications to enhance waste minimization, water and wastewater treatment, water resource recycle, reuse, and conservation. Projects of interest may seek to develop technologies that facilitate recycle and possibly recover valuable products from (but not limited to) reprocessing of waste from agricultural operations, food processing, post-consumer and industrial waste, municipal solid wastes; waste chemical, plastics, polymeric materials, plastics, etc.; recycle of precious metals, critical and strategic metals from industrial waste. Projects may include the development of technologies (smart sensors, novel process equipment, novel process technology designs, etc.) that facilitate more efficient operation of production processes and waste minimization in any aspect of commerce or industrial production/manufacturing operations. New nature-inspired processes for energy generation or storage would also fit within this topic. Incorporation of Big Data and Internet of Things capabilities to these approaches is also welcome.
