PANI CLEAN INC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.4
PANI CLEAN INC — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Agriculture.
Phase I SBIR feasibility signal
- Phase I awards fund proof-of-concept work. For capture teams, they mark early interest from Department of Agriculture in a technical approach.
- Watch for Phase II follow-ons from the same firm/topic family — that conversion path is where budgets and transition pressure rise.
- Obligated amount $100,000. Cross-check similar awards in the same agency and technology tags for going-rate context.
- Topic code 8.4 links this award to a solicitation family — search the same topic stem for incumbents and recompete timing.
- Amount
- $100,000
- Agency
- Department of Agriculture
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Topic
- 8.4
- Solicitation
- USDA-NIFA-SBIR-006649
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- IA
- Period
- 2019-06-13 → 2020-02-29
Description
Nitrate is currently the most prevalent groundwater pollutant in Northern America primarily fromagricultural activities and changing nitrogen input to the land surface.State-of-the-art treatmenttechnologies such as reverse osmosis ion exchange and electrodialysis suffer from brinemanagement cost associated with nitrate removal. The core technology developed through thisSBIR project will be a hybrid electrodialysis (ED)/electrolysis (EL) unit to efficiently removenitrates from waste water and subsequently convert them to molecular nitrogen thereby eliminatingbrine management cost. The project objectives are: (1) To develop bi-functional electrodes thatoperate efficiently in both electrodialysis (nitrate removal) and electrolysis (nitrate conversion)mode; (2) Assemble and test 1 cm2 hybrid electrodialysis/electrolysis unit and evaluate theirperformance and durability for continuous removal and conversion of nitrates in different feedwater sources.The target is to achiever nitrate conversion efficiency >75% fresh water recovery efficiency >85%and energy efficiency >75%.If successful the proposed project will improve water recovery andreuse from agricultural return flows and improve nutrient management. An economical process oftreating nitrates with no brine generation can impact >1000 community drinking water systems thathave nitrate levels greater than maximum contaminant level of 45 mg/L.