browse university and national lab ip

Dr. Yongqi Lu from ISGS has developed a novel biphasic system that can be used for the capture of CO2 in a much more cost effective way. This system uses an organic compound for phase regulation. Since phase regulation is not dependent on the amine component, this solvent system is much more efficient for biphasic separation of CO2.

Researchers from the University of Illinois have developed a new technique for rapidly fabricating elastomeric materials, namely 1,4-polybutadiene and co-polymers of 1,4-polybutadiene, with minimal energy inputs. The technique employs frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization, an exothermic reaction, to fabricate high-quality materials that are similar or indistinguishable from those used to fabricate tires, tubes, belts, gaskets, etc. This technology also allows for the rapid fabrication of elastomeric and semi-elastomeric materials with shape memory properties.

Hydrogen is a desired form of energy as it does not release harmful emissions, however massive storage of hydrogen is still a challenge. The disclosed technology establishes a unique method of storing a large amount of hydrogen without high temperatures or pressure. This invention can be used for the storage and release of hydrogen while meeting requirements for transportation or utility use.

Use of a genetically modified anaerobic microbe to increase methane production from anaerobic digestion.

Our researchers have developed methods of wet torrefaction with optimized reaction conditions so that the process can be completed in 1-5 minutes. This is a significant improvement to the conventional method which may take several hours. Wet torrefaction is the process of treating biomass with hot compressed water in an inert atmosphere, also known as hydrothermal pretreatment or carbonization, where gas, water solubles, and a carbonized solid product or biochar (also known as hydrochar) are produced. The produced biochar can be used directly as fuel or can be formed into pellets for easier transportation and handling. The biomass is reacted in a reaction chamber with an inert atmosphere, such as purged with a non-reactive gas such as nitrogen, where the chamber maintains an optimal temperature and pressure to keep the water at a condensed state and to increase the energy density of the biomass.

Engineers in Prof. Arunava Majumdar's laboratory have formulated high-entropy phase-change materials that can split water to produce hydrogen at moderate temperatures using a scalable, carbon-free process. The hydrogen is produced through a two-step solar-powered thermochemical redox reaction. Then it can be harnessed to reduce carbon dioxide and produce chemicals such as plastics, syngas or transportation fuel.

A method of biomass gasification using solar energy produces a higher yield of syngas when compared to traditional combustion methods. The solar-powered biomass gasifier forgoes the traditional method of combusting biomass or fossil fuels and instead uses solar energy to obtain the necessary energy from heat. Using the biomass feedstock as the source of energy to drive the gasification reaction typically consumes 20% to 30% of the original energy content making the gasifier much less efficient. Contrasted against traditional non-solar gasification systems, the solar-powered gasifier produces a 30-50% high yield of fuel per unit feedstock. This new device also outperforms other solar-powered gasifiers by being able to operate at lower temperatures and obtain higher efficiency. The new reactor also has the capability to perform continuously at night. This method of gasification lowers dependency on fossil fuels and produces a more sustainable biofuel.

Penn State researchers are developing an electrochemical leaching method that directly extracts lithium from α phase spodumene without the need for phase transformation, offering a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly approach to lithium extraction. The system consists of a current collector with lithium-bearing materials, carbon or metal-based electrodes, and an electrolyte. Applying an oxidation voltage to the current collector allows for the electrochemical leaching of lithium ions into the liquid phase. To improve the leaching process, a promoter such as O2, O3, H2O2, and others, can be added. Additionally, a multi-functional current collector with a large surface area and hydrogen peroxide production capability is introduced for scale-up leaching. The method also enables efficient extraction of lithium from various sources other than ores, including from waste streams and recycled materials.

The inventor has developed a process that uses CO2 in water as a ligand for extraction of rare earth elements (REEs) from waste streams, specifically fly ash and acid mine drainage (AMD). The process shifts the REE precipitation point to pH 5. This makes the process more cost effective, as the current process requires the pH be raised to 10 at a significant cost. By keeping the pH low, the remaining water after treatment can also be discharged back into the environment.

"Photoelectrochemical device for commercial hydrogen production through water splitting that preliminarly has achieved a 5.6% light-to-hydrogen efficiency. Researchers at OSU have developed a solar or simulated solar thermal absorber, consisting of a dispersion of high photothermal efficiency Mie-resonator nanoparticles in liquids or solids depending on the application, such as an ionic liquid, oil, water, thermoset polymer, and glass. Mie-resonator nanoparticles function similarly to cavity resonators; they confine photons in a nanoscale volume by their high refractive index (n > 2.5). Test data for this technology have shown that isolated Cu­­­2O nanoparticles (250 nm) in air can reach a temperature of 550 °C under low laser radiation of ~5 mW (see plot below). In addition to Cu2O, other earth abundant materials may be employed to synthesize Mie-resonator nanoparticles, such as CuO, Fe2O3, FeS2, MoS2, Si, and VO2. The high efficiency Mie-resonator nanoparticles solar or simulated solar thermal absorbers can be exploited in water desalination/distillation, electric power generation, thermochemical processes, indoor heating, and sanitization."

Dr. Kris Hauser from the University of Illinois has developed a robotic packing algorithm that reduces packing waste and increases warehouse automation. Warehouses have employed robots for picking, but less often use them for packing. This new technology may allow for a fully automated picking and packing system.

Prof. Katherine Driggs-Campbell has created intention tracking framework. It uses generative AI to adapt to a wide variety of tasks and mimic human intuition. The tracking framework directly interfaces with the robot planning module to create a complete system that can quickly respond to human needs. The system proactively provides assistance based on its assessment of the human’s intentions and state of activity. The largest commercial use case is in collaborative manufacturing, where robot manipulation is highly prevalent. Additional use cases are in emerging markets like domestic / assistive robotics, robot cooking and other. There is another paper currently in review.

This technology is a visual, non-destructive pipeline inspection system using a depth camera array (DCA). The system generates high-resolution, high-fidelity 3D models of pipeline geometry via inline inspection (ILI). In a single pass, it provides a complete map of the interior pipe surface with < 0.2% distance error for straight pipes and centimeter-level geometric accuracy for straight and curved pipes.

The invention ;utilizes ;two sequential digestion reactions. ; ;The first reaction ;digests ;lignocellulosic feed at an alkaline pH and thermophilic temperature to produce a high purity biogas as well as digestate rich in volatile fatty acids. ; This ;digestate is then exposed to a neutralized pH and produces a second biogas that improves the overall yield. ; ;This second stage promotes the conversion of ;additional ;lignocellulosic feedstock and soluble intermediates (e.g. ;the suite of volatile fatty acids produced in the first alkaline digester) to further produce methane and carbon dioxide. ;

Researchers at Colorado State University have developed a comprehensive digital tools package for oilfield water management from scratch. This software has been designed to optimize operations, minimize costs associated with transportation, water treatment and management, and promote beneficial reuse of wastewater saving millions of dollars in costs for oil and gas operators.

This technology improves the compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortar by 38% and 44%, resp., by using a trace amount of graphene oxide (GO) at low cost. The nano-engineering of sand also greatly reduced the mortar's porosity and water absorptivity. It can reduce the cement content in concrete by 20% to 30% without reducing the concrete’s strengths. Due to the enhanced interfacial transition zone (ITZ), the GO-enhanced aggregate endows the concrete with significantly better durability performance. This technology can be tailored to produce functional concrete with outstanding electrical conductivity and piezoresistive behavior. GO can also enable upcycling of off-spec aggregate in concrete, facilitating the use of local aggregates and reduce the footprint of concrete.

A cost-effective deconstruction of the comingled waste plastics streams through the novel sequential catalytic solvolysis process. This is an emerging novel technology developed at WSU for the selective deconstruction of an individual polymer or classes of polymers in a polymer mixture with homogeneous or or heterogeneous catalysts stage-by-stage under mild conditions, to produce monomers, chemicals, and hydrocarbon fuels or lubricants.

Researchers at Colorado State University have developed a compact and rugged photoluminescence-based multichannel fiber optic biosensor. ;These sensors allow for both continuous or point-wise monitoring of specified chemical concentrations in many unique applications. Previous methods of monitoring would typically need laboratory-based methods and cannot monitor continuously at various points in a system. The device developed here allows for real time, continuous, in situ measurements of chemical systems without the addition of reagents.

A new technology using cellulose, a common and sustainable material, tackles the growing issue of rare earth element (REE) pollution. Researchers created anionic hairy nanocellulose (AHNC) that quickly removes neodymium, a key REE, from water. This method is efficient, removing high amounts of neodymium in seconds. Because AHNC is made from a renewable resource and works at low concentrations, it offers a promising and eco-friendly solution for cleaning up industrial wastewater, mining waste, electronic waste, and even recovering REEs from used magnets. This technology has the potential to make REE use more sustainable and contribute to a circular economy for these valuable materials.

There is a need for improved inexpensive methods for converting CO2 ;to methanol.The present invention solves one or more problems of the prior art by providing in at least one embodiment a catalyst for C═O reduction and oxygen evolution.

The invention provides a liquid phase process for direct utilization of inorganic metal carbonate and related salts under hydrogenative conditions to produce value added fuels and feedstocks: methanol, methane, carbon monoxide and higher hydrocarbons; using preferably heterogeneous catalysts. The hydrogenation proceeds with high selectivity and yield for the desired product at relatively low temperatures, along with co-production of metal hydroxide. The metal hydroxide can be used to capture CO2, forming metal carbonates and bicarbonates that can be reused to produce more methanol and methane, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, closing the loop. Such a hydrogenation process can thus also be used in a "carbon capture and recycling" manner to produce renewable methane, methanol, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and other carbon feedstocks from CO2 sourced from any natural and anthropogenic emissions as well as from ambient air.

USC researchers have investigated the activity of a cobalt phosphino-thiolate complex ([Co(triphos)(bdt)]+ for the selective reduction of CO2 to formate for use in renewable energy storage. They find that in the presence of water, there is selective production of formate as high as 90% with overpotentials of 750mV and negligible current degradation over 8 hours. Based on the results of computational and experimental studies, the method likely operates through a metal-hydride pathway with an ECEC-based mechanism.

This emerging technology enables ethanol as a 1-way hydrogen carrier. With active DOE support (DE EE-0011096), we are developing methods to dehydrogenate neat ethanol and KOH to form potassium acetate and 2 H2. In addition to releasing hydrogen, the system forms KOAc, which because of its value as a privileged fertilizer, enables a 4X value increase from the cost of goods from starting materials. This makes the economics of the system very favorable. While the technology is early-stage (TRL 3-4), we have shown quantitative conversion of hydroxide over 10^4-5 turnovers with various catalysts, both common/commercial and USC/proprietary, mostly based on ruthenium with some iridium systems. Acetate products can be crystalized directly from the reaction solution, enabling continuous operation, which is in development. Even under self-pressurizing conditions, up to 30 bar, selectivity for acetate remains high, >99%, with byproducts including only higher alcohols, which can be used as gasoline additives.

Researchers at Colorado State University have developed a chip-scale, reusable sensor to rapidly detect aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX), in water without sample preparation. ; The device is capable of real-time, continuous monitoring for BTEX solutes, to quickly identify contaminated water systems.

Stable ammonia absorbents are used to efficiently separate hydrogen/nitrogen from ammonia, thereby improving the manufacturing efficiency of ammonia. These absorbents are simple to make and are comprised of chloride salts carried on various supports. By adsorbing ammonia at reactor temperatures, these absorbents allow the reactor to achieve up to 100% nitrogen/hydrogen conversion to ammonia. Stable ammonia absorbents, especially those that operate at high temperatures, are valuable for either large or small-scale ammonia synthesis. They enable a scalable process to make ammonia that operates at lower pressures: as little as 20 atm vs. up 200 atm for the standard Haber Bosch process. The combined attributes of improved yield and lower process pressure decreases energy use resulting in overall reduction of cost to manufacture ammonia and capital equipment costs. In addition, this ammonia synthesis method enables storage of stranded energy via distributed manufacture of ammonia and would efficiently make use of peak wind or solar-generated electricity to make hydrogen (from electrolysis of water) and nitrogen (by pressure swing absorption of air), thereby storing this energy as ammonia. Thus, this process enables both improved large scale ammonia manufacturing plant efficiency and more widely distributed small scale ammonia manufacture. An additional published paper is available at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b04684

We propose a new one step method to synthesize NixSny metal aerogel catalyst for hydrogen production by water splitting. Compared with commercial Pt catalysts, NixSny catalysts show comparable catalytic activity at 90% less cost. Our NixSny catalysts maintain 20% higher activity than commercial Pt catalysts after the same working hours, meeting the market's demand for cheaper and abundant alternatives to expensive catalysts. Our technology can be modified for other applications such as fuel cells, batteries, and thermal catalysis.

Researchers at Penn State have developed a chemical-free oxidative precipitation technique for recovery of Co, Mn, Ni, Cu, Ag, Pd, Bi, and Ta from aqueous streams. Available aqueous streams for use in the process include alkaline mine seepage water, pregnant leaching solutions acquired through electronic waste, recycled batteries and/or sludge, acid mine drainage (AMD), and industrial wastewaters. Various ligands (OH–, CO32-, NH4+, SO42-, PO43-) and oxidants (Na2S2O8, KMnO4, O3) were evaluated. Testing indicated that the (NH4+)OH ligands provided the highest recovery of Co and Mn (>98%) and grade for these elements (0.9% Co, 28% Mn). The oxidizer O3 ;resulted in the highest recovery (>98%) and grade (0.9% Co, 54.6% Mn). Based on these encouraging results, a three-stage precipitation process was designed to selectively recover Co and Mn while neutralizing the AMD to eliminate water pollution. Overall recoveries were > 95% Co-Mn, 90%-95% of the rare earth metals, and 85% of Al.