Palladium Leaching Chemistry
TECHNOLOGY/LICENSING OPPORTUNITY Palladium Leaching Chemistry Selectively Recovering Palladium from Palladium-Containing Materials 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 Palladium Leaching Chemistry technology. Background: Palladium is a precious metal exhibiting useful properties suitable for a wide range of applications. Palladium can be over 10% of the metal value in e-scrap and is recognized as a critical material of interest to clean energy technologies. Palladium is also used as a catalyst material in industrial processes such as hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions and in automotive catalytic converters. Description: Researchers at INL have developed a new process for the extraction of palladium from e-waste feedstocks. One of the most common solutions currently used in palladium recovery processes is hydrogen peroxide in hydrochloric acid. This chemistry is typically operated close to boiling temperature (80°C). INL’s process improves upon this common solution with the addition of a low cost reducing agent, which allows for room temperature operation with a fourfold increase in leaching rate. This process complements INL’s E-RECOV process by allowing recyclers to extract more value from their e-waste resources. Applications: This process can be applied in metal recycling and refining applications. Possible waste feedstocks include active material from catalytic converters and e-scrap metallic waste streams. Advantages: This method can operate at room temperature and shows recovery rates similar to other leaching processes performed at much higher temperatures. Impact: This process would allow for time and energy savings on current processes. Development: This method has been tested. Further work is being done to optimize the formulation for specific applications. IP Status: Filed US Patent Application No. 16/541,930 “Methods of Selectively Recovering Palladium from a Palladium-Containing Material” 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-1103 Department of Energy
12/10/19, 3:30 PM Method for Forming Transition Metal Alloys
TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY Method for Forming Transition Metal Alloys For metals industry members who are dissatisfied with the time-consuming and cost of current melting processes. This technology is a new method of forming a transition metal alloy that provides an inexpensive and versatile 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 process for forming transition metal alloys. Overview: This technology is a method of forming a transition metal alloy. Metal alloys and coatings are currently being manufactured either by an energy-intensive melting process or a multi-step and time-consuming melting process. This approach offers initial steps towards developing a highly inexpensive manufacturing process for an array of engineering alloys and alloy coatings. The versatility of the new process lies in coating a variety of substrate materials, both metallic and non-metallic, including complex geometries. Description: This technology is a method of forming a transition metal alloy, such as a refractory metal alloy. The transition metal alloy is fabricated from a mixed oxide intermediate. Oxide precursors of the mixed oxide intermediate may be prepared by air sintering or by heating in a reductive environment. An inert metal wire of a first metal may be reacted with a reduced metal of a second metal, such as at a cathode, to form the transition metal alloy in situ. The refractory metal alloy may be used as a coating on a substrate or as a bulk alloy. The coating of the transition metal alloy may be prepared by reacting in situ the transition metal of a transition metal oxide with the metal or other element of the substrate. Benefits: Benefits include: More cost-effective Reduced carbon footprint Less harmful to environment Versatile to a variety of substrate materials Applications: Applications include: Metal Industry Metal Coatings Metal Powders Structural Materials Corrosion Coating Aerospace Automotive Biomedical (such as orthopedic) Development Status: Experiments have been performed, showing critical function and proof-of-concept. IP Status: US Patent Application No. 62/887,436, “Methods of Forming a Metal Alloy, Methods of Forming Rare Earth Elements, and Methods of Recovering a Metal from a Waste Material,” BEA Docket No. BA-1053 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 Kala Majeti at td@inl.gov or 248-877-8866. BA-1070_1071_1072_1104 Department of Energy
4/27/20, 12:03 PM Recessed SEM Pin Stub Sample Mount
TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY Recessed SEM Pin Stub Sample Mount For companies working in scanning electron microscopy, gamma spectrometry, or transmission electron microscopy sample preparation who are dissatisfied with the cost of re-preparing samples to fit the instrument needs. This technology is an SEM stub based met mount to work with the configuration of any optical or electron microscope that provides superior sample preparation with reduced time, waste, and cross-contamination. 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 SEM stub based met mount. Overview: This technology is a new SEM stub based met mount for working with optical or electron microscope sample preparation. Traditional metallographic mounts are not dimensionally ideal for current microanalysis techniques. Currently, the practice in industry is to prepare the met mount and cut the sample from it, then adhere it to the SEM stub. INL’s new method will save personnel time and reduce processing waste by transferring to a new stub after final polishing. Description: INL’s SEM stub based met mount is a brass met mount with a removable recessed SEM stub designed to maintain the surface finish, especially with radiological samples. The mount can travel from the polisher to the analysis instruments as the whole brass mount, or the SEM stub with the epoxy mounted sample can be removed and placed on the instrument stages. The stub is held in the brass mount with a ball detent pressed into a groove milled on the post of the SEM stub and the tolerance between the stub and mount is small enough to hold with light friction. Benefits: Benefits include: Save personnel time Reduce processing waste Cost reductions Safety improvements Simple design Easy to machine materials Very basic geometry No special tooling needed for production High turnout possible Can be modified upon request to accommodate specialized sample geometries Reduced/eliminated need for grounding when characterizing using electron microscopy Ability for a sample to travel from mounting/sample preparation to any number of characterization techniques without ever having to be remounted or resized High compatibility Applications: Applications include: Broad Applications: metallographic sample preparation and microanalysis Met mount for a metallographic sample embedded in the electron microscopy industry standard SEM stub Compatible with all commercially available SEM/FIB/EPMA stages and holders Development Status: TRL 7. This technology is actively in use at INL for irradiated samples. 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 Kala Majeti at td@inl.gov or 248-877-8866. BA-1126 Department of Energy
4/15/20, 4:23 PM