{"id":1078,"date":"2017-07-07T18:35:04","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2018-02-07T21:57:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T21:57:12","slug":"neutralizing-an-unseen-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/neutralizing-an-unseen-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Neutralizing an unseen threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Kory Riemensperger<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n
\"\"
Dahlgren Decon is applied by spraying.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Sept. 11, 2001, Chris Hodge, \u201995 chemistry, was working as a process engineer for Milliken & Co.\u2019s Finishing Plant in Pendleton, South Carolina. He remembers gathering around a television with colleagues to watch news coverage of the terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

At the time, Hodge was weighing a job offer to leave Pendleton and conduct research for the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew in that moment I had to take the opportunity to put my skills to use serving my country,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cI had been back-and-forth on leaving before that. What I saw on TV that day sealed the deal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

His decision brought him to the chemical, biological and radiological defense lab of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. The lab is located on the Potomac River, just an hour and a half south of Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The military has a number of reasons for conducting research into decontamination technologies, but a major one is cost. The Navy\u2019s equipment is expensive \u2013 to put it lightly. An average destroyer-class ship costs about $1.8 billion. To protect these assets from a chemical or biological attack, Hodge\u2019s team researches ways to neutralize harmful agents without damaging property.<\/p>\n

In 2015, a decontamination project Hodge worked on for more than a decade was finished and sold to First Line Technology, a private Virginia company. To visualize the final product, Dahlgren Decon, Hodge says to imagine the solid concentrate form of a dishwasher detergent tablet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose little tablets were kind of our design dream,\u201d said Hodge. \u201cAmong other performance specifications, the Navy had two practical requirements: it had to be easy to store in small spaces and it had to be able to remain in storage for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the event of a chemical spill, biological attack or radiological accident, mixing Dahlgren Decon with water creates a solution that can be sprayed onto an affected surface immediately. In 15 minutes or less, the contaminants are neutralized and dissolve into a harmless soapy mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been trying to develop a product with the Navy\u2019s requirements for 50-60 years,\u201d said Hodge. \u201cWe were just the first to do so successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developing this breakthrough formula was no easy task. Though the team Hodge worked with began research in 1999, it wasn\u2019t until 2005 that they were able to create a prototype that could combat the chemical, biological and radiological agents that the military might encounter. The last decade has been spent improving the price, speed and efficiency of the product.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch is a tough career if you\u2019re afraid of failure,\u201d said Hodge. \u201cMy team and I might work on 100 things and only 10 even get close to success. With Dahlgren Decon, it seemed like every year we had a breakthrough that moved the project forward and kept us going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, since Hodge joined the Dahlgren lab, he and his colleagues have filed for more than 200 patents, many of which have seen use in the private commerce and industry sectors. According to him, even Dahlgren Decon has alternative uses that could bring it into homes across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ingredients that make it so powerful against harmful biological agents also make it powerful against fungi like mildew and mold,\u201d said Hodge. \u201cSince what we\u2019ve developed won\u2019t damage property, imagine the effectiveness of our solution on a home overtaken with mold damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hodge speaks fondly of his time as a Tennessee Tech student, crediting his education for giving him the tools for future success. His sophomore year, he was part of a co-op program where he spent a year producing the colorant used in Crayola markers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThinking back, that co-op opportunity was the best way to transition into my industry,\u201d said Hodge. \u201cI was basically an understudy for a process engineer. When I left, my human resources manager told me anytime I wanted a job at Milliken & Co. I just had to give them a call.\u201d<\/p>\n

His junior year, when financial difficulties put his college education in jeopardy, he received a Blankenship scholarship from the chemistry department that made it possible to finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like a student at Tech,\u201d said Hodge. \u201cProfessors were quick to look out for me and take me under their wing. I got to know my research advisor, Ed Lisic, and his family really well \u2013 we took several trips to present research together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Then-undergraduate Chris Hodge with faculty mentor Ed Lisic at a National American Chemical Society meeting in Anaheim, California, in the early 1990s.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lisic, now director of the Undergraduate Research Program at Tech, was an assistant professor at the time, but he remembers the effect Hodge had on his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris was the student that convinced me undergraduate research was something I wanted to pursue,\u201d said Lisic. \u201cHe was a joker, a hard-worker and one of the most memorable students I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Hodge was one of three Dahlgren researchers to receive a Technology to Warfighter Award. The annual honor is given by the naval base for \u201cdirect and significant impact on the warfighter by developing needed capability and transitioning it into operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons I took this job in the first place,\u201d said Hodge. \u201cSo to be recognized for fielding a viable product our men and women in uniform can use to keep themselves safe \u2013 that means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Dahlgren Decon Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Has a five- to 10-year shelf life in storage<\/p>\n

\u2022 Works with any water source \u2013 fresh water, salt water, brackish water \u2013 and is good for up to six hours after mixing<\/p>\n

\u2022 Capable of neutralizing Mustard gas (HD) in less than two minutes, Soman nerve agent (GD) in five minutes, VX nerve agent, Anthrax, and Ebola in 15 minutes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kory Riemensperger On Sept. 11, 2001, Chris Hodge, \u201995 chemistry, was working as a process engineer for Milliken & Co.\u2019s Finishing Plant in Pendleton, South Carolina. He remembers gathering around a television with colleagues to watch news coverage of the terrorist attacks. At the time, Hodge was weighing a job offer to leave Pendleton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-15"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}