Biofuels Technology Expands Globally >>
SpaceNet: Next Generation Textiles >>
The commercial development of early-stage technologies is an exciting -- while challenging -- aspect of the technology transfer process. When finalized products, technologies, and methods evolve from NC State's research and development environments and enter the greater community marketplace, everyone benefits. This article discusses some NC State products to hit the market this year. . .products that began as ideas, brainstorms, exercises in trial and error, and finally materialized in the labs, offices and development environments here at NC State.
:::: Biofuels Technology Expands Globally ::::
Based on technology exclusively licensed from NC State, Diversified Energy Corporation of Arizona developed a process known as Centia™, which can use virtually any triglyceride feedstock (virgin oils, waste greases, animal fats, algal oils, among others) to produce fuels similar to petroleum-derived gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The fuels produced will closely match the chemical, kinetic, and combustion characteristics of petroleum, therefore allowing the fuels to be stored, distributed, and used in vehicle engines without infrastructure modifications. Expectations are that cetane number (for diesel), octane number (for gasoline), and cold flow characteristics will be superior to petroleum fuels.
Since 2006 NC State University and Diversified Energy have funded and conducted research and development to validate the technology and scale-up the architecture. The technology is currently advancing under a government grant. Lab scale demonstrations of each of the process steps have been successfully completed to showcase the technical and economic viability of the approach.
In summer of 2009, Diversified Energy received a positive patentability analysis from the European Patent Office, whose purpose is to assess the novelty, inventiveness, and industrial applicability of patents for the European market. As a result of this review Diversified Energy is planning to extend its international patent protection into approximately 55 countries around the world. These include some of the largest worldwide consumers of petroleum transportation fuels such as China, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Russia, the UK, and India.
Jeff Hassannia, Vice President of Business Development, commented, “Based on the technical results generated to date, coupled with positive indications of the strength of our IP claims, we believe this to be one of the most attractive biorefinery technologies emerging in the marketplace."
:::: New Plant Breeds from College of Agriculture and Life Sciences ::::
In FY09, NC State plant breeders continued to introduce new ornamentals and improved food crops to market. Among the latest plant varieties are a dwarf butterfly bush called 'Blue Chip,' by Dr. Dennis Werner, director of the JC Raulston Arboretum, and a new strawberry plant named 'Galletta' by Dr. Jim Ballington.
The miniature butterfly bush named 'Blue Chip' is available commercially and quickly becoming a landscaping favorite. 'Blue Chip' has a dense, compact growth habit, with plants growing to 2-to-3 feet, producing colorful blue flowers. The aromatic flowers bloom from midsummer until frost and, as the name implies, attract butterflies. Blue Chip is the first of a trademarked series of plants called Lo and Behold.
From Spring Meadow Nursery Inc.: " Undoubtedly, the most exciting news in Butterfly bush news has to be the introduction of a new series of miniature plants called Lo & Behold. The first release is Lo & Behold 'Blue Chip' and as the name indicates it has blue flowers. Lo & Behold plants are remarkable for several reasons. Their small 20" mounded habit make for the perfect flowering ground cover or container plants. Unlike other Butterfly bushes, this series is continuous flowering. That's right, continuous flowering without the need to prune or deadhead."
The 'Galletta' strawberry was also released in FY2009, suitable for commercial production and ripening early in the growing season -- late April to early May. Dr. Jim Ballington, professor of horticultural science, developed this strawberry variety to ripen earlier than the most widely grown strawberry in North Carolina -the Chandler. Commercial growers also seem to love the Galletta as it produces a glossy, higher quality fruit than Sweet Charlie, the earliest strawberry available to North Carolina growers. The 'Galletta' is protected under United States Plant Patent, PP19763.
:::: SpaceNet: Next Generation Textiles ::::
SpaceNet™, a nonwoven technology employing a three dimensional design, has a long history with NC State. Initially, the SpaceNet technology was donated to NC State by Celanese Corporation due to the expense associated with producing SpaceNet products. Our researchers saw great potential and immediately began work to develop a method of applying the technology to relatively inexpensive nonwoven fabrics.
Dr. Benham Pourdeyhimi, Director of the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC) on NC State's Centennial Campus, and Dr. Trevor Little, a colleague in the College of Textiles, were successful in applying their own nonwoven research to the project to make the SpaceNet technologymore cost-effective. So successful, in fact, that Dr. Pourdeyhimi, in partnership with Dr. Walter Chappas, went on to form a startup company based on the technology called Noven Structures, LLC. Subsequently, Freudenberg Nonwovens bought the company and formed Novolon Dimensional Fabrics as a new operating division within the parent company.
Freudenberg is a multinational corporation with a leading market presence in nonwovens. With Drs. Pourdeyhimi and Chappas on board as consultants, the Novolon division built a pilot production line in Durham, North Carolina and introduced the first SpaceNet product in Europe -- the Vileda All-Purpose Microfibre Cloth, a line of household textiles with 50 percent greater absorption of water and dirt than a comparable flat product.
Space Net™ has a three dimensional design, which produces a lightweight, incredibly strong fabric that can impart both volume and resiliency without significant physical mass. As a result, when the fabric is compressed, even under heavy weight and pressure, it retains its dimensional characteristics, allowing it to resume its original shape time after time.
And the Consumer Likes It! Successful responses from focus groups and positive consumer market studies convinced Freudenberg to construct a $2.5 million production line in Germany that produces 10 million square yards of Novolon fabric for the Vileda cloth product line.