Project Grant 20173361027013

Freshkube Inc. received a $255,981 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation to develop an adaptable refrigeration system for smart mini-containers. The goal is to reduce food waste, energy use, and carbon emissions from refrigerated transport by creating a highly efficient and customizable system. Freshkube will address technical challenges in developing a volume-adaptable refrigeration unit allowing efficient operation at different cooling capacities. The company will also...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) provides $303,669 to R7 Instruments Inc. to develop a novel air-cycle -80°C refrigeration system that uses an acoustic expander instead of a traditional turbine-based expander. The key product is a low-temperature freezer system that does not use potentially harmful synthetic refrigerants, enabling applications in food processing, biological sample...

This $175,000 Project Grant awarded on September 1, 2025 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program supports Jun Innovations Inc., a small business in Honolulu, Hawaii, in developing a portable supercooling storage container for preserving fresh fish without quality degradation. The project aims to design and optimize a low-cost, transportable supercooling unit integrated with food...

This $305,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) project aims to develop a novel, reusable, and environmentally-friendly magnetocaloric cooling system for cold chain logistics. The research and development effort focuses on overcoming technical challenges to create a compact, energy-efficient cooling device designed for mobile applications that can replace the current reliance on disposable,...

The Agricultural Research Service, a sub-awardee of the Government of the United States, was awarded $589,250 under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The four-year project grant beginning May 1, 2022 will support the development of isochoric freezing technology to pasteurize and preserve fluid foods like milk, orange juice, apple juice, carrot juice, pomegranate juice,...

Radiant Innovation LLC was awarded a $175,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Project Grant by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop rapidly deployable, grid-independent refrigerated containers powered by solar energy and battery storage. The goal of the project is to enable new markets for farmers and food distributors through reliable cold supply chains for storing, distributing, and marketing fresh foods using off-grid...

The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Energy Concepts Company, LLC $175,000 under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program to develop an innovative refrigeration cycle for small-scale refrigeration. Energy Concepts will modify an existing propane-fired diffusion absorption chiller to enable operation using heat from renewable energy sources like solar thermal, geothermal, waste heat,...

The National Science Foundation awarded $275,000 under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships federal grant program (CFDA 47.084) to Kazadi Enterprises LTD to develop a Hydrologic Open Cooling System. The project aims to create a renewable, closed container cooling system incorporating rechargeable vacuum insulation and a novel two-stage heat pump. The system is designed to maintain cooling chamber temperatures between 1.5-5 degrees Celsius using 10% or less of the electrical power of...

Radiant Innovation LLC was awarded a $650,000 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.212 - Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program) to develop and demonstrate reliable, off-grid solar-powered refrigerated containers for distributed cold storage to support local food supply chains. The key objectives are to: 1) improve thermal and ventilation models for predictive...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.212 - Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program) has awarded a $174,998 Project Grant to Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc. (ACT) to develop a new high-throughput low-temperature plasma (LTP) system. The system will generate plasma-activated water (PAW) to address food safety in industrial food processing facilities. Compared to current...