Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 Enriched in Switchable Polarity Solvents
TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY
Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 Enriched in Switchable Polarity Solvents
For biorefineries who are dissatisfied with the cost and carbon efficiency of current CO2 conversion technologies. This technology is a new conversion process using switchable polarity solvents that provides an increased conversion rate and lowered capital equipment cost.
Image 1: INL Researcher Birendra Adhikari works through the electrochemical process
Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize this CO2 reduction technology.
Overview: This technology is a process that converts CO2 to beneficial products to ultimately produce fuel and chemical intermediates. Current conversion technologies such as fermentation and pyrolysis suffer from low carbon efficiency. INL’s process increases the conversion rate which lowers capital equipment cost.
Description: Biomass conversion to fuels and products is growing as an alternative to fossil sources. While biomass has a promising future, conversion technologies such as fermentation and pyrolysis suffer from low carbon efficiency. INL’s process would efficiently convert CO2 to beneficial products, through syngas, to ultimately produce fuel and chemical intermediates. The impetus is to improve carbon efficiency, improve biorefinery economics, and reduce GHG emissions. The electrochemical process is driven by electricity derived from solar, wind, or hydro power. This process uses a switchable polarity solvent (SPS) to enrich CO2 in a liquid, which can be liberated to CO2 at the active surface.
Benefits: Benefits include:
Increased conversion rate
Lowered capital equipment cost
Does not require electrolyte additions
Reduced resistive losses
Applications: Applications include:
Biorefineries
Syngas conversion
Development Status: TRL 2. Parts of this technology have been developed at INL but the combined process has not been demonstrated. The use of the SPS to increase the reduction rate has been tested.
IP Status: Patent Application No. PCT/US18/53381, “Methods and Systems for he Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide using Switchable Polarity Materials,” BEA Docket No. BA-908
Additional Information
Video: https://youtu.be/afpmQGqRcr8
INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available.
Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.
Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Ryan Bills at td@inl.gov or 208-526-1896.
BA-908 Department of Energy
5/20/20, 5:22 PM Antibody Profiling - Forensics Identification Technology
TECHNOLOGY/LICENSING OPPORTUNITY
Antibody Profiling
Forensics Identification Technology
Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the Antibody Profiling technology.
Background: Historically, biologically identifying individual persons has involved such technologies as fingerprinting, retinal scans, and DNA analysis. Although DNA testing is now commonly used by law enforcement, medicine, and agriculture, it is expensive and time consuming. There is an increasing demand for forensics identification and because of the scarce resources and slow throughput of current methods, a large backlog continues to grow. This backlog causes delays in identifying criminals and holding innocent suspects. In the U.S., this backlog in the DNA testing system has over 90,000 untested samples. Delays in solving crime can be costly and dangerous.
Description: Researchers at INL have developed a new technique that can uniquely identify a person by analyzing the antibodies in body fluids. A unique, individual set of antibodies is found in blood, serum, saliva, urine, semen, perspiration, tears, and body tissues, and the antibodies are not affected by illness, medication, or food/drug intake. The identification process is simple. A sample is placed on a membrane strip, and two reagents are added to the strip. A final step produces a colored profile, or bar code. The bar code is unique to the person. One can compare the bar code visually to those from previous tests, or, using computer software, compare it to those stored in a database. The Antibody Profiling technology will serve as a complement to DNA testing, providing a quick screening to reduce the volume of DNA tests needed.
Applications: In addition to crime scene forensics, this technology is also being adapted to drug testing in law enforcement and rehabilitation settings. There are potential uses in identity confirmation for security applications also
Advantages: The Antibody Profiling technology can be performed in the field with minimal training and yield results faster and more cheaply. It also potentially solves privacy concerns with DNA testing as antibodies are specific to you after conception and based on early life environmental exposures.
Impact: The cost and time savings provide significant value, saving 90% of the cost and producing results ten times faster. Having quick and easy results will reduce the number of DNA tests needed which will clear backlogs and lead to quicker identification of suspects and quicker case resolutions. This leads to law enforcement having more time and money to solve crimes.
Development: TRL 4. The technology has been tested at bench-scale. Further development is required.
IP Status: Multiple US Patents: No. RE46351, “Improved Antibody Profiling Sensitivity through Increased Reporter Antibody Layering,” and No. 8,969,009, “Identification of Discriminant Proteins through Antibody Profiling, Methods and Apparatus for Identifying an Individual.” BEA Docket No. BA-158 and BA-386.
INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available.
Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.
Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Ryan Bills at ryan.bills@inl.gov.
BA-158 Department of Energy
1/6/20, 11:10 AM Low-Cost Method for Season Algae Storage
TECHNOLOGY/LICENSING OPPORTUNITY
Low-Cost Method for Seasonal Algae Storage
Storing Concentrations of Microalgae-Derived Biomass
Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the Seasonal Algae Storage technology.
Background: Many valuable products, such as energy-dense fuels, can be synthesized from microalgae-derived biomass. However, microalgae are extremely sensitive and susceptible to degradation after harvesting. This generally creates a narrow window of opportunity to process the harvested microalgae into marketable products. This challenge is further complicated by seasonal variability in microalgae production rates due to changes in temperature, sunlight, etc. Peak microalgae production commonly occurs during summer months. Microalgae produced in the summer that is in excess of processing capacity must be stored for later use. A number of microalgae storage options have been explored, but each presents serious problems. Drying preserves most of the biomass but is an energy intensive options that significant increases the cost of the end product. Ensilage of microalgae avoids the high energy cost of drying, but the biomass degrades under storage conditions, resulting in significantly reduced product yields.
Description: Researchers at INL have developed methods for storing concentrations of microalgae-derived biomass with much lower dry matter loss than under preciously explored ensilage techniques. This method has also demonstrated production of significant volumes of bio-succinic acid and hydrogen, which would enhance the value of the stored algae and can result in secondary revenue streams for producers. This minimal dry matter loss, combined with the co-product formation, helps offset storage costs and enables economically viable, short- or long-term storage (1-6 months) of microalgae for later processing.
Applications: Interested industries may include microalgae biomass production and storage and bio-succinic acid production.
Advantages: Benefits derived from this technology include significantly less costs, decreased microalgae loss, organic avid production, and useful gas production.
Impact: The cost savings from this technology are significant (65% compared to drying costs). The microalgae loss has been demonstrated at 5-15% after 30 days of storage compared to typical wet storage losses of 8-37%.
Development: Initial experiments have been performed, further tests are ongoing.
IP Status: US Patent Application No. 15/495,625, “Methods of Preserving a Microalgae Biomass,” BEA Docket No. BA-914.
INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available.
Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.
Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Ryan Bills at ryan.bills@inl.gov.
BA-914 Department of Energy
12/10/19, 10:28 AM Electrochemical Recycling Electronic Constituents of Value (E-RECOV)
Idaho National Laboratory has developed a technology to reclaim valuable metals from waste electronic equipment. The Electrochemical Recycling Electronic Constituents of Value (E-RECOV) method uses an electrochemical cell to efficiently recover the bulk of metals from discarded electronics, leading to more complete recycling of materials while significantly minimizing chemical use and waste generation. The process is capable of dissolving the major metals found in electronics and can be used on materials that have been shredded, magnetically separated or milled to a particle size below one millimeter.
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the E-RECOV technology.
BA-837 Department of Energy
12/11/19, 4:17 PM Rare Earth Metal Recovery Using Ionic Liquids
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize a new Rare Earth Metal Recovery technology that uses Ionic Liquids.
Researchers at INL have developed a new ionic liquid based REE recovery process that overcomes the limitations of poor metal solubility and high viscosity associated with current technologies.
The applications of this technology include rare earth metal production as well as the recycling of magnets and recovering rare earth metals from mine tailings
BA-975 Department of Energy
12/5/19, 3:39 PM