Sandia is soliciting expressions of interest from potential partners to further develop and/or commercialize the technologies shown below. Partnerships are anticipated to take the form of Cooperative Research & Development Agreements (CRADA) and/or commercial licenses. CRADAs are expected to include funds-in to the Labs and licensed rights may be up to exclusive in a field-of-use, depending on the business case. Sandia is seeking partners that have proven experience in translating immature technologies into market-driven products, have technical capabilities in the technical area(s) shown below, are fiscally sound and well managed, and can commit to manufacturing the products in the U.S. Gas-Phase MicroChemLab™ Sandia National Laboratories has developed technology for analyzing and detecting chemical vapors for a wide range of national security and industrial applications. The technology includes sample collection, separation and detection components, as well as limited engineered systems and subsystems. Chemical materials and coating methods used with these components are also included. Copyrighted data analysis software, patent applications and issued patents represent the intellectual properties associated with this technology. Swing Free – Industrial Crane Using input shaping algorithms this invention isolates the payload and flexible link from platform motion throughout a desired payload motion. It includes a control system and method for generating crane commands from operator input for substantially pendulation-free payload motion, even when the crane is mounted on a moving platform. Copyrighted software and five US patents are associated with this technology. Ultra Sensitive Acoustic Motion Detector Utilizing the combination of Vertical Cavity Surface-emitting Lasers (VCSELs) and MEMS, devices can be fabricated to serve as inexpensive, highly sensitive sensors with applications in a variety of markets. Fabricated of polysilicon materials, two tiny comb-like structures (instead of fingers) are laid one over each other. The bottom comb is locked rigidly in place. The top comb is secured only by horizontal springs. Any tiny motion sends the top comb skittering over the bottom comb, laterally deforming the grating. A small laser in the visible to near-infrared range, focused on the apparatus enables the detection of very small lateral displacements. This measuring device is in effect a kind of accelerometer, about the size of a MEMS device. Mass manufacturing by the same foundry processes as conventional silicon chips (both the laser and the MEMS devices) is expected to yield low cost products. Patents are pending for this technology. Energy Efficient Brackish Ground Water and Produced Water Desalination This technology presents an entirely new approach to desalination of inland ground, primarily brackish water as well as desalting/demineralizing of produced waters (i.e., Coal bed methane produced water) found in the oil and gas industry, and is based on in-situ precipitation, ion exchange and precipitation of inorganic phases able to sequester the major ionic constituents of brackish water and conventional impurities in natural gas and oil. The resultant ion exchange material would contain the removed ions and therefore would require non-toxic waste removal. These wastes can either be recycled, safely deposited in landfills without salt leaching, or used as a sellable building materials (incorporated for example into cement). Furthermore, it is applicable to remote locations of oil and/or natural gas wells that pump highly mineralized waters along with the gas. By employing this technology, an operator is not required to run energy lines or build large power plants (generally associated with RO desalination processes); nor are they required to further treat or transport produced brackish water away from the site. Employing this technology allows for inexpensive, on-site water treatment and disposal. A patent is pending for this technology. Energy Efficient Hydrocarbon Purification Through Zeolite Membranes Zeolite membranes are chemically, mechanically and thermally stable materials that utilize size selectivity through angstrom sized pores. These materials have been successfully synthesized to demonstrate application to “plugging” agents for cracks or larger non-selective pores. Novel processing techniques have been developed to modify the surface of the pores to enable tune-ability of the adsorption properties of the zeolites. They have been successfully synthesized in the 1.5 - 7 micron thickness range. Furthermore, they have been successfully applied to C5 and C7 hydrocarbon separations, as well as light gas molecules. Patents have been awarded and additional patents are pending for this technology. Novel Family of Zeolites for Selective Heavy Metal and/or Radioactive Cation Removal The new class of molecular sieves named Sandia Octahedral Molecular Sieves (SOMS) has been synthesized, characterized and tested for the removal of aqueous divalent cations, in particular dissolved heavy metals (i.e., Co2+, Zn2+, Cd2+) and radioactive cations (i.e., Sr2+, Ba2+). These materials were originally developed for remediation of waste materials in storage tanks, but can also be easily applied to the mining and chemical industries. They have been shown to have very high selectivity for cations of choice and maintain high selectivity over the entire pH range. Recently, Sandia has applied for a patent for a synthetic procedure for the synthesis of these materials that utilizes oxide based reactants, resulting in an inexpensive and easily-scaleable synthetic procedure that is expected to have broad industry applications. Patents have been awarded and additional patents are pending for this technology. Specific Anion Nanoengineered Sorbents (SANS) SANS is a simple and cost effective set of nanoengineered materials for the removal of arsenic contamination in drinking water. This new class of materials provides inexpensive and effective removal of anionic contaminants from drinking water and wastewater, without requiring costly pH adjustment. SANS media can be used in both granular filter bed and coagulation/micro filtration water treatment systems, and can be disposed as nonhazardous waste. The SANS materials will allow both rural and municipal water systems of varying water usage to meet the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arsenic drinking water standard of 10 parts per billion. SANS materials have been tested in laboratory batch and column tests, where they have surpassed the capacity and effectiveness of commercially available arsenic sorbent or coagulation materials. SANS has been evaluated as both solid granules and as surface coatings on inexpensive substrates. The latter application is a means to produce very inexpensive, but effective, arsenic sorbents. Both sorbent media and coagulation/micro filtration technologies can be adapted for use in many water utility systems, thereby significantly reducing water utility compliance costs for the new EPA standard. Additional laboratory tests demonstrate that SANS media can be used for treatment of other regulated anionic contaminants, such as chromate, perchlorate or pertechnetate. Further technical information about SANS materials may be found at the following website: http://www.sandia.gov/eesector/gs/gc/SANS/index.htm. Patents have been awarded and additional patents are pending for this technology. Interested parties may contact Teresa Montoya, Administration, Fax: 505-844-8011, E-mail:
[email protected]. Be sure to indicate the technology in which you are interested.