EPA Awards Nearly $3.2M to Small Businesses to Research Complex Environmental Issues and Help Grow the Green Economy
Washington–Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $3,196,530 in research funding to eight small businesses to further develop and commercialize their environmental technologies. Recipients of this year's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding include companies developing a nature-based treatment for graywater reuse, a system to remotely sense fugitive methane emissions in abandoned wells, field-deployable devices to rapidly screen drinking water for PFAS, and more.
“EPA is prioritizing American small businesses, demonstrating that environmental protection and economic growth can go hand-in-hand,” said Chris Frey, Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “In bringing effective environmental solutions to the market these small businesses will support local economic growth while addressing urgent national environmental needs.”
Each year, EPA issues an SBIR solicitation for technology proposals for targeted environmental topics. The SBIR program consists of two phases of funding. The companies announced today have received Phase I contracts of up to $100,000 for 6 months during the “proof of concept” of their proposed technologies. Now, during Phase II companies are awarded up to $400,000 to further develop and commercialize their technologies.
This year’s SBIR Phase II award recipients
- LeapFrog Design (Bend, Ore.) to develop a nature-based treatment technology for onsite non-potable graywater reuse.
- Aquarius Systems (North Prarie, Wis.) to develop an in-water system to capture and remove aquatic trash.
- Forever Analytical Services, Inc. (South Bend, Ind.) to develop field-deployable devices to rapidly screen drinking water for PFAS.
- Censys Technologies Corporation (Daytona Beach, Fl.) to develop an innovative system for remote sensing of fugitive methane in abandoned oil and gas wells.
- Hydrova Inc. (Santa Ana, Calif.) to develop a novel process to recover resources and produce hydrogen from secondary aluminum processing waste.
- Kamilo, Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.) to develop an innovative approach to track, calculate and verify the percentage of recycled content used in new plastic products.
- Zabble, Inc. (Walnut Creek, Calif.) to develop an artificial intelligence-based tagging platform to improve recycling by monitoring contamination audits.
- VISIMO (Carnegie, Penn.) to develop a machine learning toolkit that can screen published research to improve systematic reviews for chemical risk assessment.
Learn more about the recipients.