This $425,118 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) will fund the development of a new portable biosensor capable of rapidly detecting a wide range of chemical, nanotechnology, and biological toxins, including emerging threats and previously uncharacterized toxins. The biosensor will use living microbial reporter cells and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology to monitor the cells'...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) Project Grant award of $275,000 to Triangle Environmental Health Initiative LLC (Tri-Ehi) aims to develop a selective ion separation and recovery technology for wastewater treatment. The project focuses on optimizing technical design for maximum solute selectivity and concentration, evaluating separation performance with representative wastewaters, and scaling up the system for future...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) project grant under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $147,600 to Old Dominion University Research Foundation (ODURF) to develop and study a novel chemical process for cleaning organic contaminants from wastewater while simultaneously generating methanol that can be used for wastewater denitrification. The project, running from May 2024 to April 2026, utilizes biocatalytic enzymes immobilized in carbon nanofibers to oxidize organic pollutants...
This $650,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.074 - Biological Sciences) to Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) supports research to investigate the role of environmental factors in the development of antibiotic resistance among bacteria in municipal wastewater treatment plants. The key products and services to be delivered under this 5-year award include: Conducting integrated field, laboratory, and computational studies to...
This $150,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports a collaborative research effort led by Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), an HBCU institution, and Old Dominion University. The project aims to develop a novel chemical process that can simultaneously clean organic contaminants from wastewater and generate methanol, which can then be used for wastewater denitrification. The process utilizes biocatalytic enzymes to...
This three-year, $390,261 National Science Foundation project grant will fund research at The Washington University to advance the production of volatile fatty acids from organic wastes through anaerobic digestion. Specifically, the university will investigate using hydrogen peroxide generated via bioelectrochemical conversion to inhibit methanogenesis and maximize valuable chemical yields. Researchers will study inhibition mechanisms, evaluate membrane separation systems, and explore...
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) received a two-year, $200,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems to develop nanoplasmonic mesh-based biosensors for in situ spatiotemporal monitoring of biofilm activities. The goal is to incorporate uniform nanoplasmonic hotspot arrays within microbial biofilms to enable real-time, spatially-resolved surface-enhanced Raman...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $249,999 Project Grant to William Marsh Rice University under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program. The grant supports the development of an advanced materials-based technology to permanently destroy toxic and persistent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water. The project aims to optimize a photocatalysis-based approach that uses only light to degrade PFAS, without requiring chemical additives. The...
This $996,717 Cooperative Agreement award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) supports Waihome LLC, a for-profit small business, in developing an affordable and resilient onsite wastewater treatment solution. The project aims to design and pilot test an above-ground treatment unit that utilizes a symbiotic algal-bacterial biofilm to provide high-quality aerobic wastewater treatment, addressing issues with the performance and...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Engineering awarded a $1,999,999 Project Grant under the CFDA 47.041 Engineering program to Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) on October 15, 2023. The objective of this 4-year project is to develop a biosensing platform that uses engineered living materials to continuously monitor for the presence of various airborne pathogens, including those that could be used as bioterrorism agents. The technology,...