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Recap: The EPA recently awarded $1.9 million to 19 small businesses to develop green technology ideas that tackle what the Agency considers critical environmental problems. Each of the companies will receive a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract (the awards are called “contracts”) for up to $100,000 to develop their green technology—this is the proof of concept stage.
Three green tech ideas that got funding
Precision Combustion, Inc., located in New Haven, CT, won the Phase I contract with its proposal to develop regenerable nanocarbon filters for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other gaseous air contaminants. The filters are intended to absorb an array of air contaminants from indoor or industrial sources. Precision Combustion claims that the sorbents in its nanocarbon filters will overcome limitations to air purification in other commercial sorbents, including loss of capacity, inadequate regenerability, low volume capacity, and the inability to handle multiple contaminants. The company plans to work with large-scale manufacturers of air filters to integrate their nanosorbent with current needs for air purification from both small and industrial sources.
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Industrial Microbes, Inc., out of Emeryville, CA, plans to use its SBIR Phase I contract to begin the development of a green fermentation platform to replace carbon-emitting petrochemical processes with new methods that build chemicals out of carbon dioxide and methane. The company claims that by using these raw materials and a new process, it will be able to produce valuable chemicals for half the current production cost and thereby decrease carbon pollution for several established chemical markets. According to Industrial Microbes, their innovation is an engineered yeast microbe that will consume carbon dioxide and methane and produce C4 (i.e., four carbon) chemicals. The conversion occurs inside living yeast cells by engineered enzyme pathways, in a process similar to brewing beer.
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Physical Optics Corporation, based in Torrance, CA, will use its SBIR Phase I contract to develop an innovative desalination project. The project, called Regenerative Capacitive Electro-Desalination System (RECED), is meant to enable the use of reduced-quality water sources, such as weakly saline brackish water, or even ocean and seawater, as part of the drinking water system’s intake. What makes RECED innovative is the scalability and portability of the desalination through self-powered portable desalination systems that will use nanostructured materials and compact energy sources.
Read about all the most recent SIR Phase 1 contracts.