Innovation empowers new businesses to become industry leaders and aids existing companies in adapting to evolving markets. But taking risks on early-stage ideas is often cost-prohibitive for industry. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides researchers with the tools and support to develop technologies with transformative potential and accelerate market transition through lab-sponsored programs that facilitate industry collaboration and fast-track discovery to real-world application.
“ORNL is an ideal hub for the investment, discovery, de-risking and transitioning of new technologies prior to large scale industrial demonstration, said Michelle K. Kidder, distinguished R&D scientist. Her story is just one example of how national laboratories derisk cutting-edge technology for private industry. “We have the tools to evaluate new materials and connect innovations with industry to bridge the so-called ‘valley of death’—that critical gap between basic research and applied science where many technologies fail to progress.”
Kidder developed a novel technology that separates carbon dioxide from a mixed gas feedstock, such as agriculture, fossil fuel or natural gas production and utilization, and converts it to a new, useful chemical or fuel product with a polymer catalyst. This polymer catalyst was recently licensed by General Galactic, a deep-tech startup manufacturing platforms for space mobility and propellant generation.
“Our goal is to upgrade waste feedstocks of carbon dioxide, through a one-step process of reactive capture and convert it into formic acid for versatile industrial applications, including as a reducing agent for chemical processes in the aerospace or aviation industry, where formic acid is an intermediate to create synthetic aviation fuel or diesel blendstocks,” said Kidder.
The chemical transformation of waste byproducts, like carbon dioxide, into valuable products is a growing sector of the market. “This polymer catalyst is unique because it's robust, doesn't degrade in the solvent systems that we use and forms pure product without costly separation,” Kidder said. “It's also more affordable and scalable, due to its one-step synthesis. We have shown a significant reduction in energy use compared to current chemical industry processes. And we are not limited to producing just formic acid — we can tune the chemistry and conditions to create other products as well.”
Because the discovery and development phase is often too costly for companies without in-house R&D teams, ORNL fills a critical gap by advancing promising technologies until they are ready for commercialization.
Laboratory investment in innovative technology
The technology was initially supported by funding from ORNL’s Laboratory Directed and Research Development program and then received additional support under a competitive funding opportunity announcement from the DOE Office of Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office.
Kidder was selected to participate in the Chevron Technology Studios program, which works to scale and commercialize innovative technologies. She then joined the inaugural cohort of the Safari program, which was supported by the DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization Practices to Accelerate the Commercialization of Technologies (PACT) program to promote the transition of laboratory-developed technologies to the marketplace. Safari, now called Catalyst, included a mentoring program designed by ORNL to support researchers interested in technology commercialization.
“Through Safari, ORNL signed multiple technology licenses and built a network of over 20 researcher-entrepreneurs who are not only working with industry leaders and within other DOE entrepreneurship programs, but who are also collaborating across different divisions of ORNL,” said Susan Ochs, engagement program manager in the Partnerships Office. “As the program continued and developed into Catalyst, our participants have learned how to adapt to accommodate the realities of the market and move their technologies forward.”
The coaching program has received national recognition from the Federal Laboratory Consortium and DOE Technology Transfer Working Group, becoming a model for strategic communications within the national lab complex.
“Beyond what the national laboratories aid in discovery and design, the training provided by ORNL aided in my ability to engage with industry and understand how to communicate the value proposition,” said Kidder. “Engaging the proper industry and then understand what challenges a company must address is key in how to open opportunities to focus the study of research on the front end and understand how this the research outcome design fits into a market.”
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Brynn Downing
