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CONTRACTS AWARDED FOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES
Release Date: 12/06/2001
Contact Information:
FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2001
CONTRACTS AWARDED FOR COMMERCIALIZATION
OF ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES
David Deegan 202-564-7839 / deegan.dave@epa.gov
Contracts have been awarded to four small businesses for the final development and initial commercialization of new technologies for environmental protection. EPA’s Small Business Innovation Research program spawns commercial ventures that improve the environment and quality of life, create jobs, increase productivity and economic growth and improve international competitiveness of the country’s technology industry. The four companies are: National Recovery Technologies Inc., American Research Corp. of Virginia, Powsus Inc. and Continuum Dynamics Inc. National Recovery Technologies Inc. of Nashville, Tenn. is developing a technology to detect and remove small fragments of metal from plastics that are undergoing recycling. This technology will be merged with another technology developed by National Recovery Technologies that allows high-speed sorting of different plastic polymers. Contamination of plastics in the recycling stream is a major impediment to widespread plastics recycling and this new technology has the potential to improve our ability to re-use these products. American Research Corp. of Virginia, based in Radford, is developing a sensor to detect environmental contaminants, such as pesticides, in the field. A major advantage of this system is that it promises to be capable of extremely low detection limits with potential for use in environmental, food, chemical and biomedical fields. Powsus Inc. of Ft. Pierce, Fla., will develop a safe, automatic fire extinguisher that uses an environmentally friendly powder to suppresses fire at levels equal to or greater than existing fire-extinguishing agents. Added advantages are that the powder does not contain toxic by-products and the light-weight extinguisher can be used in cars, boats, trains, trucks and cargo containers. Continuum Dynamics Inc. of Ewing, N.J., is developing a technology to reduce pesticide drift from aerial, agricultural spray operations. The wingtip device has the potential to reduce downwind contamination and damage to crops and livestock by permitting the delivery of pesticides in a more accurate manner. Another advantage is that this method has negligible effects on the operational characteristics of the aircraft itself. More information on the Small Business Innovation Research program is available at: http://es.epa.gov/ncer/sbir/ .
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