Hybrid Membrane–Adsorption Process for Efficient Direct Air Capture
TS-073184 —
Direct air capture (DAC) technologies are essential for meeting global carbon‑reduction goals, yet most current systems remain limited by high energy demand, high cost, and materials with insufficient stability. Traditional solid‑sorbent DAC approaches require significant thermal input for reg…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Ho, W.S. Winston; Han, Yang; Huang, Yi-Chen
- Licensing Officer: Ashouripashaki, Mandana
Transforming Alum Sludge into a Sustainable Solution for Organic Contaminant Removal
TS-072576 — The Need
Drinking water utilities face mounting challenges in managing alum sludge, a byproduct of water treatment, as landfill options dwindle and disposal costs rise. Simultaneously, utilities must address increasingly stringent regulations for organic contaminants such as disinfection byproducts …
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Elliott, Dane; MacKay, Allison
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Smart Drag-Reducing Surfactant Solutions with Tunable Flow Control
TS-071748 —
Pipeline and recirculating water systems lose significant energy to turbulent friction. Today’s polymer DRAs are effective in hydrocarbons but irreversibly shear‑degrade, need continual re‑injection, and cannot be “turned off” in heat exchangers. Earlier aqueous surfactant DRAs reduced p…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Maxson, Andrew; Watson, Lucas; Zakin, Jacques
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
High-Throughput Cellulose Acetate Nanofiber Mats for Oil Spill Remediation
TS-071746 — The Need
Oil spills continue to pose significant threats to aquatic environments, public health, and economies worldwide. Existing sorbent technologies struggle to efficiently capture thin oil sheens and often lack buoyancy, limiting their effectiveness in real-world conditions. There is a critica…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Gouma, Pelagia "Perena"
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
SPARKLE: Machine Learning Platform for Rapid Organic Battery Material Discovery
TS-071386 — The Need
The search for sustainable, high-performance battery materials is hindered by reliance on finite metal-based resources and slow, trial-and-error development cycles. Organic electrode materials (OEMs), composed of earth-abundant elements, offer a more sustainable path but present challenges …
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Paulson, Joel; Muthyala, Madhav; Park, Jay; Sorourifar, Farshud; Zhang, Shiyu
- Licensing Officer: Mess, David
Efficient Machine Learning Prediction of Solvation Thermodynamics
TS-071267 — The Need
Modeling solvent effects on catalytic surfaces is critical for designing industrial processes like biomass conversion, fuel synthesis, and electrocatalysis. Traditional multiscale simulations combining density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) offer accuracy but are comp…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Getman, Rachel; Punyapu, Rohit; Shi, Jiexin
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Novel Operational Strategies for Fixed-Bed Redox Chemical Looping Systems
TS-070630 — The Need
Fixed bed chemical looping systems offer operational simplicity and minimal attrition compared to moving bed systems, but they suffer from transient behaviors like feed breakthrough, uneven solid conversion, and coking. These issues compromise efficiency, scalability, and product consistenc…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Fan, Liang-Shih; Joshi, Rushikesh Kishor; Sunny, Ashin
- Licensing Officer: Ashouripashaki, Mandana
Fast-Charging Silicon-Graphene Anodes for Durable Lithium-Ion Batteries
TS-070307 — The Need
The rapid growth of electric vehicles and portable electronics demands lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) that support fast charging without compromising cycle life or safety. Silicon anodes offer high theoretical capacity but suffer from severe volume expansion during cycling, leading to mechani…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Jang, Dawoon; Kim, Jung Hyun; Yap, Jun Wei
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Next-Gen 3D Nanostructures for Solar-Powered Chemical Processes
TS-070030 — The Need
Current photocatalytic technologies often require UV light for activation, limiting their efficiency and applicability under natural sunlight. Additionally, the short lifespan of photogenerated electrons and holes in TiO₂ nanoparticles hinders effective utilization. There is a need for a…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Gouma, Pelagia "Perena"
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Novel Efficient Butanol Production without CO2 Emission
TS-068795 —
The Need
Renewable energy resources have gained global interest due to environmental issues, climate change, oil price and supply volatility, and decreasing nonrenewable fossil fuel sources. Butanol is a biofuel alternative that can provide a higher heating value, lower volatility, polarity, cor…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Yang, Shang-Tian "ST"
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Methods to produce high purity tritium gas
TS-067793 — The technology is a device and method for producing high purity tritium gas by irradiating a lithium composition within a gas cell that selectively allows tritium to diffuse while blocking other byproducts, ensuring efficient and direct collection
of pure tritium without extensive purification. This system is designed to enhance the purity, efficiency, and scalability
of tritium production for various industrial and research applications.
The production of high purity tritium gas is critical for applications in nuclear fusion, radioluminescent devices, and scientific research. Current methods for tritium production often result in contaminants like helium and other gases, requiring additional purification processes that are costly …
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Cao, Lei Raymond; Van Zile, Matthew
- Licensing Officer: Ashouripashaki, Mandana
Highly Efficient Light Olefin Selectivity & Production Process
TS-065422 — Light olefins, such as ethylene and propylene, are essential building blocks in the petrochemical industry and have a wide range
of uses in various applications. The most common uses for olefins include polymers, chemical intermediates, solvents, rubber, and nanomaterials, among others.
Although Light olefins are used globally in many products, the catalytic processes to produce them are energy intensive with a large carbon footprint and the production of greenhouse gases and water pollution. As a result, substantial efforts are being made in the industry to develop more sustain…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Ozkan, Umit; Gunduz, Seval; Kim, Jaesung
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Direct Current Generation By Recycling Omnipresent EM Waves
TS-063309 — The Need
Over five billion wireless devices are connected to wireless service providers worldwide, with a constant emergence of new and improved technologies. Fifth Generation (5G) wireless technologies are rapidly being deployed due to the demand for fast and more reliable services for mobile user…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Wang, Xiaoguang "William"; Lyu, Hualiang
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Fast-charging anodes for lithium-ion batteries
TS-063224 — The Need
In the rapidly evolving landscape of electric vehicle (EV) technology, there exists a pressing commercial need for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) that can not only deliver high charge capacities and power densities but also address the critical issues of capacity fading and safe…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Kim, Jung Hyun; Jiao, Xinwei "Jocelyn"; Yap, Jun Wei; Yu, Chanyeop
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Post synthetic incorporation of Ti into zeolite Beta via defect sites originating from methyl-silanes and its impacts on epoxidation and reduction reactions
TS-062968 — A novel method
of creating catalytic material containing paired Lewis acids in combination with alkyl-metal precursors for improving the production
of materials used in agricultural, chemical, and other commercial/industrial applications/processes.
More efficient techniques to create catalytic material are required to enable higher efficiencies and other performance improvements when used for manufacturing of specialty chemicals and other compounds. The conventional methods whereby Lewis acids play a role in catalysis has some key limitation…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Brunelli, Nicholas "Nick"; Spanos, Alex
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Tuning the nature of the catalytic site through synthesizing Lewis acid zeolite Beta with alkyl-Sn precursors
TS-062967 — Novel method capable
of using alkyl tin compounds to generate Lewis acid zeolite Sn-Beta.
Conventional approaches used in chemical processes such as synthesis for production of materials involve formation of catalytic sites within the process framework. Current methods used for catalytic site creation tend to be long and result in increased production costs. This is partially due to re…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Brunelli, Nicholas "Nick"; Spanos, Alexander
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Heteroatom doped Carbon Nanostructures for Electrocatalytic Chlorine and Bromine Production
TS-062692 —
Chlorine is used in production of many products, such as many polymers like polyvinyl chloride, polyurethanes and chloroaromatics. It is also used extensively in pharmaceuticals, pesticides, fiber optics, hypochlorite bleaches, and other commodities. However, the current method of producing chlori…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Ozkan, Umit; Jain, Deeksha; Mamtani, Kuldeep
- Licensing Officer: Zinn, Ryan
Method for Preparing High-Energy Electrodes with Controlled Microstructures for Energy-Storage Devices
TS-061848 — The current manufacturing methods for Lithium-Ion Batteries are limited to around 200 Wh/kg. Power density is a factor
of the battery construction and is highly dependent on the electrodes.
The Need
Conventional Li-ion batteries consist of electrodes constructed of stacks of 70 µm films. The thin electrodes then require current collectors and separators for assembly, which increase mass without adding charge capacity. The need for these inactive components limits the power densi…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Kim, Jung Hyun; Rao, Lalith; Sayre, Jay
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Activity Enhancement of Perovskite-Type Cathode Material
TS-044391 — A new ammonia production technology using an oxygen ion conductive solid oxide electrolyte cell (SOEC) reactor and a novel cathode material.
Ammonia is utilized in a variety of industries with 80% of produced ammonia used for fertilizer production. Most commercial ammonia is produced using the Haber-Bosch (HB) process, which requires high temperatures and pressures, resulting in high operational/production costs. The process typically us…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Ozkan, Umit; Deka, Dhruba Jyoti; Gunduz, Seval
- Licensing Officer: Zinn, Ryan
N-Proanol and Propionic Acid Producing Propionibacteria
TS-037515 — New method
of producing n-propanol and propionic acid using a metabolically engineered propionibacteria.
Propionibacteria are well-known for their various industrial applications including the manufacturing of Swiss cheese, vitamin B12, and propionic acid. However, not much is known about their genetics, and few studies have been conducted utilizing them for metabolic engineering, mostly in vitamin B…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Yang, Shang-Tian "ST"; Ammar, Ehab
- Licensing Officer: Panic, Ana
Paired Lewis Acid Site Zeolite Catalysts for the Selective Conversion of Glucose to Fructose
TS-030928 — A zeolite catalyst with a unique chemical structure that utilizes paired Lewis acid sites to increase the catalytic selectivity for the isomerization
of glucose and other sugars into fructose.
Fructose is a key compound in the food and fermentation industries that is typically produced via the enzymatic isomerization of glucose. The enzymes used to efficiently convert glucose to fructose are expensive to manufacture and sensitive to processing conditions. An alternative approach is to d…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Brunelli, Nicholas "Nick"; Deshpande, Nitish; Parulkar, Aamena
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder
Simulcure Technique - Fabrication and Preparation of Structural Composites
TS-014977 — A fabrication technique to prepare a composite structure with sensor elements distributed in 3-D space for visualizing stress distribution.
Trends in home automation, wearable electronics, and autonomous vehicles have created networked ecosystems, in which computers coexist and play a critical role. In these ecosystems, sensors provide necessary inputs to monitor the environment and take situation-specific action. Currently, sensors a…
- College: College
of
Engineering
(COE)
- Inventors: Sundaresan, Vishnu Baba
- Licensing Officer: Randhawa, Davinder