SBIR/STTR Research Award
Producing & Marketing Climate Smart Plant Growth Media and Commodities from Biomass Waste on Small Farms
Award amount
$124,939Program and phase
SBIR · Phase IAward year
2024Award details
- Awarding agency
- Department of Agriculture
- Branch
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture
- Recipient company
- BLUE EARTH LLC
- Proposal award date
- 2024-02-01
- Contract end date
- 2026-02-28
- UEI
- L11VMKEL2T26
- Solicitation number
- USDA-NIFA-SBIR-009962
- Topic code
- 8.12
Research abstract
Producing&MarketingClimateSmartPlantGrowthMediaand
CommoditiesfromBiomassWasteonSmallFarms
ProjectSummary
Multi-billiondollarinvestmentsinClimateSmartpartnershipswereinitiatedbytheUSDAin
2023.Easternredcedar(ERC)inKansasandtheregionisaubiquitousresourcethathasbeen
highlightedasanenvironmentalconcernbutisoftennotbeneficiallyutilized. On-farmbiomass
wasteiscommonaspartoffarmoperations.Biocharmarketanalysishasindicatedthat
integrationofbiocharintoplantgrowthmediablendsespeciallyClimateSmartsolutionsthatare
peat-lessandperlite-lesstogrowspecialtycropsisaresearchneedandmarketopportunityand
demonstrationsofitsvariousformulationsinspecialtycropgrowthtrialsishighlydesired.
Co-compostingofbiocharwithotherbiomasssourceshasbeenshowntoimprovethe
bioavailabilityofnutrientstovariouscropsandimprovetheirhealthandproduction-sometimes
many-fold.Commercialpeatandperliteblendsofplantgrowthmediaarecarbon-positive(net
carbonsource)anddegradehabitat. Biochar-integratedplantgrowthmediacanbeformulated
anddistributedinwaysthatmakethemcarbon-negative(netcarbonsink). BlueEarthproposes
testingofformulationsofvariousERC-biocharbasedblendsco-compostedwithon-farm
biomasswastesthroughplantgrowthtrialsof30varietiesofspecialtycropstodeterminethe
feasibilityofestablishingaClimateSmartrecipeforusebysmallruralandurbanfarmsinthe
CentralKansasFoodCorridor.ACo-op/Food-Hubmodelwillbeexploredwiththeexistingand
expandingfarmermembershipandpartnershipnetworkintheCentralKansasFoodCorridorfor
cooperativeCommercializationopportunities.
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
Awards with the same topic code
Verified by an exact topic code match. This is not a text-similarity match.
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- Innovative device to safely and efficiently break up bridging in grain bins
- Low-cost mobile phenotyping platform to accelerate genetic improvements in structural soundness and extend the productive lives of beef and dairy cattle using 3D artificial intelligence
- Innovating Electric Fence Monitors
- Novel Mobile Model For Post-Harvest Coffee Processing System
Research funding history
2 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (2018–2024). Reported award amounts total $224,859. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I
Agencies: Department of Agriculture