Sandia National Laboratories has won the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s (FLC) 2016 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer for efforts including transferring a Sandia-developed decontamination product that neutralizes chemical and biological agents.
The national awards recognize employees of FLC member laboratories and non-laboratory staff who did outstanding work while transferring federally developed technology.
Decontamination Technology for Chemical and Biological Agents, which also won a Far West/Mid-Continent regional FLC award last year, uses a mix of mild, nontoxic and noncorrosive chemicals found in common household products such as hair conditioner and toothpaste. It contains surfactants that lift agents off a surface and mild oxidizers that break down the agent’s molecules into nontoxic pieces that can be washed down a household drain like detergent or dish soap.
The product works quickly and kills 99.99999 percent of bacteria, viruses and fungi.
Originally used by the military and first responders, Sandia has licensed the formula to several companies that have further developed it to battle toxic mold and decontaminate meth labs, disinfect healthcare facilities and schools, remove pesticides from farm equipment and agricultural packing plants and fight the spread of the Ebola virus in Africa.
The decontamination formula was developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Chemical and Biological National Security Program.
