Case Studies

When traces of oil are found in water, sediments, or biological tissues, how can you identify the sources? Agencies and oil companies need rapid, accurate and objective data in order to determine where hydrocarbons are coming from and distinguish between an accidental release and natural sources.

Our client needed a comparative formative study of two different devices for administration of glucagon in rescue situations (i.e., diabetic severely hypoglycemic and going into shock). It was critical to determine how well users were able to use the devices when under extreme stress and develop risk/safety profiles for each device.

Lithium ion batteries are the battery of choice for laptops, electric vehicles and many other applications due to their high energy density, low maintenance and recharging ability. As electric vehicles become more commonplace and new battery uses are identified for aerospace, industrial and consumer applications, their use continues to grow. Battelle researchers developed the concept that an optical sensor could be used to monitor the battery for internal flaws such as dendrites.

Battelle and AAFRF modified the SPU at AAFRF to produce 500-gallon plus lots of fuel surrogates with properties similar to next-generation bio-based aviation fuels. We used this surrogate fuel to run tests to assess the properties of the candidate alternative fuels, including physical properties, corrosion resistance, thermal stability and production quality.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security came to Battelle for help in identifying new analytical and statistical methods for characterization of Organophosphate pesticides (OPPs). OPPs are a highly toxic class of chemicals still used for agricultural purposes in many countries. Their high toxicity and wide availability could make them attractive to terrorists or criminals for use as chemical threat agents (CTAs)

Battelle's fish metabolism and bioaccumulation studies are helping agrochemical companies meet the new EU requirements for reregistration or new product registration. By combining both bioaccumulation and metabolism studies together, we can save time and money for agrochemical companies and provide all of the information they need for product registration in one well-designed study.

Changes in electric potential and impedance of human skin can cause significant errors in biopotential measurements such as electrocardiograms (EKGs) and electroencephalograms (EEGs). Battelle researchers started with a literature review in order to find the latest research on how the structure and chemical makeup of materials impact ionic transport.

An agrochemical company urgently needed to generate missing data in order to meet their product submission deadline. After another lab failed to complete the studies adequately, they contacted Battelle for help. Data from the manufacturer showed several known impurities in their technical material. They asked Battelle to perform a 5-batch analysis to determine the exact quantities of these known impurities for product registration.

An international customer came to Battelle with a challenge: they needed to develop a co-formulation of two distinct fungicides with stability and efficacy equal to or better than each of the active ingredients alone. We used a solvent screen to identify a solvent that provided good solvency for fungicide B, poor solvency for fungicide A (to prevent crystal growth), and low water solubility to keep fungicide B in solution and maintain its activity.

Changing regulations required our client to reformulate an agrochemical fungicide to achieve lower dose rates. The challenge was clear, but the approach was not—until Battelle developed a lab-scale process that mimicked their existing factory process. This allowed us to predict which modifications would meet their criteria.

Integration and harmonization of NEON data products with NASA's SMAP's GV Program will help us to understand and predict how our planet functions and evolves, and allow us to pursue new ways of living, doing business, growing our economies, providing food security, and escaping poverty.

This novel product needed thoughtful design for manufacturing and dynamic startup production. Battelle’s manufacturing team employed Battelle’s Production-Optimized Design process, a unique take on traditional design for manufacturing, to provide substantial proactive thought to the system design. More than 200 of the LS10 have been produced and sold to date, shipped directly from Battelle to international locations such as Australia, England, Canada, and Norway.

The Battelle team decided that the best and swiftest course of action was to develop a minimum work program to gain access to a complete European regulatory data package. A detailed gap analysis, along with a letter of access to vertebrate studies, supported the new product registrations in the European marketplace.

NASA formed a collaboration with Battelle to add the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) field sites to its SMAP Soil Moisture validation network.

Each year, more than 640 million passengers board domestic flights in the U.S. alone, according to Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). Battelle responded to air travel authority needs by developing one of the most advanced bottle liquid scanners in the world, which can detect and alert security personnel to flammables, acids, and explosive liquids, aerosols, and gels within seconds.

Heat buildup is a significant problem and limiting design factor for many electronic products. For example, LEDs are emerging as the next generation lighting materials due to their low power utilization and long life. Some lamps have multiple LEDs within an enclosure, which generates undesirable heat during operation. Through Battelle’s Nanotechnology program we are developing thermally conductive thermoplastic materials for complex net shape geometries, as well as spray-on, conformal, thermally conductive coatings for efficient heat spreading over large areas.

NEON Science Team staff have developed a tutorial to walk data users through the process of how to find quality flag data, how to interpret the results of the many quality tests that NEON data are subjected to, how to determine if the quality flagged data are suitable for their research objectives, and how to filter out unwanted data from their research.

Our advanced analytical, immunobiological and bioinformatic techniques provide developers with a complete nutritional profile as well as an allergy risk assessment. The final result? Farmers and consumers have access to safe, new food products that will meet the needs of the 21st century.

Using the new lab data, Battelle was able to refine the assumptions used in the Borstal computer model to provide a more realistic risk assessment of potential leaching. The refined modelling can be used to make better decisions about application recommendations, and provide critical data necessary to maintain product registration or move into new market areas.

NEON data, which have been shared with the U.S. Forest Service, may help in the development of fuel models that could be used to determine the percentage of total available biomass actually consumed by Western American Wildfires. By improving the estimates of total biomass that researchers can get from remote sensing data, that data can be used to build models that give us better predictions of wildfire spread and emissions. This will also help us predict how changes in biomass resulting from climate change may influence fire activity in the future.