FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 24, 2006
For more information contact:

Wyoming Silicon, LLC, Sheridan, Wyoming
Contact: Zachary Gray, Phone: 307-752-2615

Elk Mountain Herbs, Inc., Laramie, Wyoming
Contact: Karin M. Guernsey, Phone: 307-742-0404

Z4 Energy Systems, Guernsey, Wyoming
Contact: Kevin M. Luke, Phone: 307-836-3108

JD Manufacturing, LLC, Pine Bluffs, Wyoming
Contact: Jerome Michaud, Phone: 307-245-3779

Eugene (Gene) Watson, Program Manager
Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative
Phone: 307-742-7162, Cell: 307-760-0456

Pine Bluffs, Laramie and Guernsey firms win SBIR Phase 0 Awards

CHEYENNE – Four Wyoming firms were awarded $5,000 grants through the Wyoming Business Council’s WSSI Phase 0 program. The WSSI stands for the Wyoming Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Initiative. The SBIR Phase 0 Program helps Wyoming companies develop competitive proposals for the federal SBIR and STTR programs. The WSSI initiative is funded by the Wyoming Business Council and gives out $120,000 in Phase 0 grants each year.

JD Manufacturing of Pine Bluffs received a Phase 0 grant with their proposal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to build the first practical and affordable industrial continuous flow vacuum frying system. The frying system would be used for cooking potato chips and other snack foods.

JD Manufacturing was founded by Dennis Michaud in 1995 and now has snack food manufacturing sites in the United States as well as Europe, Australia and the Caribbean. According to Michaud, the growing consumer demand for healthier food products has identified vacuum cooking as the wave of the future, especially for the snack food industry. This method is not more widely used because acquisition and maintenance of the current vacuum technology is too expensive for most food manufacturers.

The proposal JD Manufacturing is submitting will go to the USDA because of its potential benefit to farmers, consumers and food processors. Michaud says new uses for vegetables and fruits could result from the project’s successful implementation.
Elk Mountain Herbs, Inc. of Laramie has been awarded a Phase 0 grant to determine the viability of establishing Elephant Head as a commercial crop for Wyoming Growers. Elk Mountain is targeting the USDA with their Phase I proposal.

Currently, the Elephant Head plant grows in the high country near the Snowy Range, as well as the hay meadows in the Aspen Glow Ranch. The plant is native to Wyoming. Elk Mountain Herbs specializes in medicinal tinctures made from Wyoming plants.

Elk Mountain Herbs, started in Laramie, Wyoming in 1994, manufactures herbal products from Wyoming medicinal plants. One of their products is Elephant Head tincture. It is used to relax tight and rigid skeletal muscles; treating stiff necks, aching backs and pain from muscle injuries.
Elk Mountain Herbs, Inc., President, Karin Guernsey, noted that “The Phase 0 program has been a tremendous opportunity for our company to explore product development options.”

Sheridan’s own Wyoming Silicon was awarded its third Phase 0 grant for their attempt at developing a low-gravity liquid/gas interface sensor. The proposed target is NASA.
Wyoming Silicon is developing a sensor which can work in space’s cryogenic temperatures, which hover around 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Inside the fuel tank of the space shuttle is a mixture of cold liquid, which is used as fuel, and a slightly warmer gas, which is a waste product. According to Zachary Gray of Wyoming Silicon, without gravity, it becomes difficult to determine where the liquid and gas actually are, and complicates the ability to gauge the amount of fuel in the tank.

Wyoming Silicon proposes using a time/domain system, which would send a signal down a conductor - steel tube - and watch for the reflection, which would allow users to find the boundaries of gas and liquid. Using that information, Gray says you can infer the size and amount of liquid in the container.

“We want to use the unique technology in other areas like measuring snow depths as well,” Gray said. “Then we will have the capability for avalanche detection as well as other applications.”

Z4 Energies of Guernsey received a $5,000 grant to prepare a Phase I application to the USDA. Kevin Luke, a mechanical design engineer at Z4, is developing a wind turbine. The next stage in the turbine’s development is to develop the blade design by incorporating a controlled flex that will adapt the blade to provide maximum power over a wider range of wind speeds, while limiting potential for damage by excessive wind.

Using some of the Phase 0 funding, Z4 has secured consultancy agreements with the University of Wyoming engineering faculty.

The federal SBIR and STTR programs make up the WSSI alliance and provide more than $2 billion annually in Research and Development (R&D) grants and contracts to qualified small businesses. Eleven federal agencies are required by law to provide these funds by setting aside 2.5 percent of their annual extra-mural R&D budgets for use exclusively by U.S. small businesses for new product R&D. Hence, these programs provide a unique source of start-up and seed capital for small businesses to develop new innovative product concepts.

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.wyomingbusiness.org.

###