This technology, titled "Metal Oxide Promoters for Improving the Reactivity and Capacity of Oxygen Carriers for the Chemical Looping Combustion Process,” provides a mixed metal oxide carrier to improve the oxygen transfer capacity and reactivity of existing carriers. Following patent approval, the technology will be available for licensing and/or further collaborative research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

 

This technology, "Regenerable Mixed Copper-Iron-Inert Support Oxygen Carriers for Solid Fuel Chemical Looping Combustion Process," provides a metal-oxide oxygen carrier for application in fuel combustion processes that use oxygen. This technology is available for licensing and/or further collaborative research with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

This technology uses composite lasers to produce multiple temporal ignition pulses, which can be used to improve the efficiency of both laser ignition systems for natural gas fueled engines as well as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) sensors. This technology is available for licensing and/or further collaborative research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Challenge

Natural gas-fueled engines help to reduce transportation and energy costs, fuel consumption and harmful emissions compared to conventional gasoline engines. One reason for these improvements is because combustion in a natural gas fueled engine takes place in what is called a lean burn mode, in which fuel is burned with excess of air. However, this lean burn mode may lead to unnecessary misfire when the ignition spark occurs but fails to properly ignite the fuel and air mixture.

This technology provides an advantageous means to convert syngas into a class of chemicals known as higher oxygenates, as well as other long-chain hydrocarbons. Research is currently active on this patent pending technology "Method of CO and/or CO2 Hydrogenation Using Doped Mixed Metal Oxides." This technology is available for licensing and/or further collaborative research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

This invention describes a system and method for detecting corrosion in natural gas pipelines using an optical platform or a wireless platform. This technology is available for licensing and/or further collaborative research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Challenge

The U.S. Energy Information Administration states that natural gas accounts for nearly 30 percent of energy consumption in the United States. More than 300,000 miles of natural gas transmission and gathering lines deliver this valuable energy source to consumers. Like any energy infrastructure, this network of pipelines requires significant maintenance costs. In the case of natural gas pipelines, corrosion accounts for around 25 percent of incidents over the last 30 years, 61 percent of which was caused by internal corrosion.

The corrosion-related annual cost for such incidents amounts to $6 to $10 billion in the United States each year. Therefore, a need exists to monitor corrosion inside of the gas pipelines to implement corrosion mitigation and control before any failure.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has developed a system for enhancing chemical reactions by electrostatic/microwave and/or/ radio frequency controlled resonant electron interaction. The invention performs at a much lower temperature than conventional processes. The system can reduce the cost of many important industrial processes including nitrogen and hydrogen production. Although the focus of the invention is on producing hydrogen from hydrocarbon sources, many different reactions could be activated using the same physics. This invention is available for licensing and/or further collaborative research.

Challenge

Approximately 50 percent of natural gas is used by industry. The existing chemical reaction-based processes, such as, the Haber process, are very energy intensive and costly. This invention increases the rate and extent of chemical reactions at much lower temperatures resulting in higher product yield and overall production. It also allows for reduced energy requirements and reactor size of dry and partial oxidation reformers.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has developed a system and method for combining polyamines, which immobilizes the dye-absorbing amine sites within low cost, porous silica particles. The innovation has the potential to remove organic-based colorants and pollutants from different water sources. This invention is available for licensing and/or further collaborative research from NETL

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has developed a method for achieving tunable gas sensitivity of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. The innovation implements a class of materials with tunable absolute film conductivities called conducting metal oxides (CMOs), which enables SAW devices to be calibrated for gas sensitivity in diverse harsh-environment conditions.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has developed a laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) probe featuring simplified construction that minimizes the need for optical elements from the probes data collection path, reducing potential interference with the transmission of high quality spectra. By reducing the complexity and cost of the laser head, the invention maximizes the amount and quality of light returned for analysis and increases the usefulness of LIBS research.

The invention consists of the application of metal oxide nanowire-based sensor layers to optical sensing platforms such as optical fiber-based sensor devices. This technology is available for licensing and/or further collaborative research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Challenge

Thin film and thick film metal oxide based materials are typically employed as the active layer in harsh environment chemical sensing. However, these sensing layers do not have sufficient sensitivity and chemical selectivity in many applications because of their microstructure and the lack of a sufficiently large surface area.