Friday, March 29, 2024

EPA announces $300,000 in grants for businesses developing environmental protection technologies

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded $300,000 in grants to Connecticut’s Precision Combustion and Massachusetts’ Aspen Products Group, as well as six other companies throughout the country, to develop innovative environmental protection technologies.

“We believe our technology offers potential for improving indoor air quality for better human health, productivity and living at a lower overall cost,” Precision Combustion President Kevin Burns, whose company will use its funding to develop a low-cost, self-cleaning air filter system to remove pollutants from indoor air, said. “This also offers building owners a more valuable property, and HVAC and building environmental control system manufacturers with a useful component improving their products’ value and attractiveness to their customers.”

The funding will allow Precision Combustion, Aspen and the other nationwide winners to further develop their ideas, which they have started to work on with a previous EPA grant of up to $100,000.

“The diversity of color-, taste-, and odor-causing contaminants, along with heavy metals, hardness, and emerging contaminants, in the nation’s water supplies presents challenges to the drinking water producer,” Aspen VP of Research and Development Mark Fokema, said.

Aspen will use its $300,000 grant to develop a membrane that can reject wastewater contaminants and produce drinking water at a rate five to 10 times better than currently existing ones.