Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer

Palladium-based Sorbents for Mercury Removal From Gas Streams
Researchers Evan Granite and Henry Pennline of the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) have developed and patented palladium-based, high temperature sorbents for use in integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power generation systems that have high efficiencies and offer the opportunity to reduce pollutants and greenhouse emissions. The sorbents remove mercury—as well as other low-level contaminants such as selenium, arsenic, and cadmium—from the IGCC plant's synthetic gas product (syngas). Because they operate at high temperatures, the sorbents effectively remove significantly more mercury than ambient-temperature activated carbon sorbents, and result in a higher energy efficiency for the IGCC plant.

Predictive Microbiology Information Portal for Enhancing the Nation's Food Safety
To ensure the safety of the nation's food supply, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established food safety regulations that govern the manufacturing and distribution of domestic and imported food products. Food products must meet these regulations so they can be marketed in the U.S. However, these regulations are often complicated and not well understood even by large food companies, which have financial resources to employ food safety experts to interpret and help them comply with the regulations. Small and very small food producers are often unable to understand and comply with food safety regulations, which results in limited production volume or closed businesses.

Scientists at the Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) developed the Predictive Microbiology Information Portal (PMIP) on the World Wide Web to provide food producers, especially small and very small producers, and food safety researchers with better access to food safety information, regulations and tools that help them address food safety questions at no cost. This comprehensive website brings together predictive models for foodborne pathogens, research data, relevant regulatory policies and guidelines, and other useful food safety-related links to numerous and diverse resources associated with the models. The new Internet resource is invaluable to food processors-especially small meat and poultry processing companies. The information it provides can answer food safety questions and help food processors make science-based decisions to produce safe and wholesome products for consumers. To ensure the safety of food processing methods, a searchable database in the portal allows users to find information that can be used to develop plans for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point inspection. This is one of the most comprehensive decision support tools available to ensure the microbiological safety of food products.

ERRC's Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe Approach to Pesticides
High-quality results for hundreds of pesticide residues and food commodities are needed to meet world standards for trade, regulatory, risk assessment, and other scientific purposes. The analytical method(s) used for multi-class, multi-residue analysis of pesticides must effectively meet these needs, but must also be fast, simple, inexpensive, reliable, and environmentally friendly. Scientists at the Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) developed, disseminated, and transferred a highly advantageous monitoring approach they termed QuEChERS, which stands for "quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe." QuEChERS lives up to its name in that a single analyst can prepare final extracts from a batch of 20 homogenized food samples in about an hour (or one sample in 10 minutes) using $1-3 of disposable materials and 10 mL of nonchlorinated solvent waste per sample. QuEChERS improves lab efficiency with respect to costs, labor, sample throughput, space, labware needs, and waste generation typically more than twofold over previous methods.

The ERRC team conducted two successful inter-laboratory validation trials with independent standards organizations, organized/instructed many training courses and workshops, gave numerous lectures, wrote about 30 publications, prepared protocols, maintained a QuEChERS website, received grants, exchanged hundreds of emails to answer questions, hosted several visiting scientists, established trust agreements with General Mills and UCT, Inc., and interacted extensively with more than a dozen companies that currently market QuEChERS products. All of these activities were highly effective technology transfer mechanisms for QuEChERS to reach its current point-it has usurped the 34-year-old Food and Drug Administration method to become the worldwide gold standard way to analyze pesticide residues in foods.

Companies have made more than $500,000 dollars from the sale of QuEChERS products, and manufacturers market instruments costing more than $100,000 using QuEChERS for sample preparation in food applications. Monitoring labs in the food industry, contract labs, agrochemical companies and regulatory agencies around the world all benefit by using the QuEChERS method.

NIOSH Aims to Reduce Worker Fatalities
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 16% of worker fatalities result from contact with equipment. Proximity warning devices can improve workplace safety by alerting workers when they are in a hazardous area near mobile industrial equipment or equipment with moving parts. Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory developed an active proximity warning system (PWS), identified as the Hazardous Area Signaling and Ranging Device (HASARD), that employs a low-frequency, low-powered electromagnetic field as a robust, consistent marker for dangerous areas. The marker is generated by passing a known constant alternating current into a properly positioned transmitting antenna (i.e., loop of wire, or a small coil of wire wrapped around a ferrite bar) that is mounted on the equipment being protected. The resultant signal envelops the dangerous machinery area in a well-defined halo-shaped pattern. To make this an active system (which minimizes false or nuisance alarms), each worker wears a small receiver that detects and accurately measures the marker field. After appropriate calibration at the site, the receiver becomes an effective accurate distance-measuring device. HASARD is particularly suited to short-range occupational situations, e.g., up to approximately six meters. A microprocessor in the receiver determines the level of danger based on the actual distance between the worker and the antenna(s) on the machine and, if appropriate, provides the worker with an alert (vibratory, audible, and/or visual). A wireless data link in the receiver can provide a remote alert to the machine operator or other workers nearby and can even shut down the machine, if desired.

The HASARD system was awarded two patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Over 30 companies have inquired about using the HASARD system in the workplace. Thus far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has granted nonexclusive licenses to Geosteering Mining Services, ICG ADDCAR Systems, and Alliance Coal. Geosteering Mining Services, a supplier of advanced technology for mining, is marketing this system for underground mining machines and investigating its application to surface haul trucks in mining and construction. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are partnering with this licensee to introduce and evaluate the HASARD system for continuous mining machine operations. An international license for this technology has also been established with Air Sun Auto Fleet, a South African company. HASARD has the potential to significantly reduce "struck by" or "caught in" worker/machine traumatic injuries and fatalities in a broad range of industrial environments.