Lifetime Achievement: Roy Keller, director of the Louisiana Technology Transfer Office at LSU, has been awarded the Small Business Advocacy Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Small Business Technology Council in Washington, D.C. Keller, who also is associate director of the Louisiana Business & Technology Center at the LSU Innovation Park, joined the LTTO in 1992, a news release says. He also manages the Louisiana Small Business Innovation Research grant program and has access to the Federal Laboratory Consortium. Charles D’Agostino, LSU Innovation Park executive director, says in a statement that Keller is a leader in the national SBIR program and notes that Louisiana has moved from 45 into the top 30 for national rankings for SBIR grants won by small businesses since the program was implemented. Read more.
Making repairs: The East Baton Rouge School Board will receive an additional $6.4 million in disaster recovery funding for the August 2016 flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency in a news release says the aid is reimbursement for emergency protective measures at 16 educational facilities in the parish. The funding is repayment for flood clean up, demolition of damaged structures, debris removal services and other construction costs. East Baton Rouge schools have received more than $14 million for flood damage. FEMA has awarded more than $87 million for schools since the August 2016 disaster. The funding will also assist with recovery efforts at four administrative buildings.
Awarded: Washington, D.C.-based Venture Global LNG has awarded CB&I a nearly $200 million contract for the engineering and construction of two LNG storage tanks for its Calcasieu Pass export facility. A news release says Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass is expected to produce 10.0 million tonnes per annum of cost-competitive LNG supply. The facility’s design will use a liquefaction system with 18 mid-scale modular trains driven by electric motors to achieve optimum efficiency and reliability. CB&I will provide, on a turnkey basis, two single-containment LNG storage tanks. Construction of the tanks is expected to begin in 2018.
