The Department of Environmental Protection this week awarded a $150,000 grant to the Electrotechnology Application Center at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Northampton County.

The Center helps small businesses, principally manufacturers, implement new electron beam technology to reduce air pollution.

The Small Business Demonstration of Air Pollution Control Program grant will fund demonstrations of state-of-the-art technologies using electron beams to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that are used in heating, drying, coating and curing processes.

Lab tests show electron beam technology can destroy many VOCs and do so using less energy than other methods. This grant will test the applicability of electron beams in actual factory environments.

Controlling these emissions is particularly important to companies using paints and other coatings on various manufactured products. Volatile organic compounds are precursors to the formation of ground level ozone which can cause breathing difficulties for people with existing conditions such as asthma, and can exacerbate other health problems.

The Electrotechnology Application Center is the only not-for-profit organization in Pennsylvania that has an operating mission to help small businesses reduce VOC emissions to comply with federal and state government air quality standards.

3/23/2007