EPA awards two Colorado small businesses $210,000 in innovation research contracts

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a total of $210,000 in Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to two small companies in Colorado.

The companies receiving $70,000 innovation research contracts are:

Eltron Research, Inc., Boulder, receiving a total of $140,000 for two projects. In the first project Eltron will apply the company’s new catalytic technology for nitrogen oxides abatement to off-road diesel engine exhaust, demonstrating the feasibility of a zero ammonia diesel exhaust after-treatment technology for mobile engines. The technology will also be applicable to exhausts from lean burn gasoline engines, natural gas fired boilers and turbines, and coal-fired combustion engines. In the second project, Elton will develop an ion-selective, polymer membrane electrode capable of detecting perchlorate in water at low parts-per-billion concentrations. During this phase, the destruction of perchlorate will be demonstrated.

TDA Research, Inc., Wheat Ridge, receiving $70,000 for the development of a chemical production process for producing low-cost biodiesel using high free fatty acid vegetable oil and animal fat feedstocks, which are much less expensive than those being used today. The new process, in addition to reducing fuel costs, will be more energy efficient and not produce the aqueous waste that results from conventional processes.

These are Phase I or “proof of concept” awards. There are a total of 25 companies awarded such contracts by EPA nationwide.

“There are huge new opportunities for profits in the booming green technology business sector,” said Dr. George Gray, assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development. “Many large corporations are already investing heavily in environmental applications. Through the SBIR program, EPA is helping small businesses also make significant contributions to new technologies that are both environmentally friendly and profitable.”

EPA will be requesting applications for the development of new environmental technologies until May 21.

SBIR was established to ensure that new technologies are developed to solve priority environmental problems, and is just one example of EPA’s commitment to achieving real world environmental results though the use of innovative technology. In 2006, EPA established the Environmental Technology Council (ETC) to increase the Agency’s role as a facilitator in development and commercialization of technologies that measurably improve specific environmental problems. Since its inception in 1982, EPA’s SBIR program has helped fund more than 600 small businesses.

EPA is one of 11 federal agencies that participate in the SBIR program, enacted in 1982 to strengthen the role of small businesses in federal research and development, create jobs, and promote U.S. technical innovation in the United States.