The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded more than $2 million to small businesses working on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, making fuel from biomass, creating safer building products, and more.

The EPA's Small Business Innovation Research Program is giving $2.38 million to 34 businesses to support the research, development and testing of various technologies.

The projects cover a variety of topics, including air pollution, biofuels, vehicle emissions, green buildings, greenhouse gas reduction, homeland security, innovation in manufacturing, nanotechnology, waste management and monitoring, water infrastructure, and drinking water treatment, monitoring and security.

The small businesses receiving funds include:

• Lao K, which is working on a soy-based adhesive for use in producing plywood. The adhesive consists of soybean flour and a curing agent derived from glycerol. The funding from the EPA will be used to test if a large quantity of the curing agent can be produced in a pilot reactor and if the adhesive can be used to make plywood in a commercial production plant.
• Aspen Products Group, which will develop a filter for trapping particulate matter and volatile organic compound emissions from restaurants and other commercial cooking setups. The filter would destroy the emissions efficiently and with low capital and operating costs.
• Technology Specialists, which will test a process for converting biomass waste of almost any kind (food waste, wood, grassland, etc.) into diesel fuel. The biomass will first be turned into pyrolysis oil, then into diesel. The tests will determine if the process is technically feasible and profitable.
• Technova Corporation, which will test the feasibility of using mixed-color recycled glass as a replacement material for cement, which would improve the durability, moisture resistance and chemical stability of concrete, while also reducing the energy that goes into concrete production.
• NEI Corporation, which is working on a self-healing nanocomposite that could be used to protect drinking water pipes from corrosion.

The Small Business Innovation Research Program was created in 1982 to strengthen small business' role in federal research and development, create jobs and promote technical innovation. To be considered a small business, a business must have fewer than 500 employees and at least 51 percent of the company must be owned by U.S. citizens.

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