Solar Thermochemical Processing System and Method (iEdison No. 0685901-11-0013)
The purpose of the invention is to capture concentrated solar radiation, converting the energy to chemical energy. This is accomplished by operating a high temperature endothermic reaction such as methane steam reforming where the heat of reaction is largely or completely provided by solar energy.
Catalyst Structure And Method Of Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis
The use of microchannel chemical reactors has led to the development of engineered catalysts for reaction systems with intrinsically rapid surface reaction kinetics. By removing or suppressing heat and/or mass transfer limitations and operating under short residence times, a much smaller process system is needed to achieve high product throughput. In addition, the use of short residence times can lead to non-equilibrium product distributions. In this work, engineered catalytic strucures have been developed for carbon monoxide hydrogenation (Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis). The engineered structures must be designed in such a way as to allow for rapid heat removal for the exothermic reaction so that formation of the undesired side paroduct, methane, will be limited. In addition, they must be thermally stable and resistant to deactivation. At the same time, the catalyst structures must provide sufficient dispersion of active metal constituents and they must not produce significant pressure drops through ractor systems.
EXTRUSION WITH SPECIFIABLE OR VARIABLE WALL THICKNESS (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0132)
We have designed and integrated an apparatus with the ShAPE machine that enables extrusion of round hollow tubing having actively controlled wall thickness. This has been demonstrated for aluminum alloys 6061 and 6111 where the wall thickness was tailored from 1 mm to 2 mm and back to 1 mm along the length of the extrusion by changing the tube inner diameter from 10 mm to 8 mm and back to 10 mm . The attachments discuss the design, integration, and proof-of-concept results.
ALUMINUM-ETHER-BASED COMPOSITION FOR BATTERIES AND AMBIENT TEMPERATURE ALUMINUM DEPOSITION (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0051)
We invented and demonstrated a novel electrolyte formulation comprised of dialkyl ethers (R1-O-R2, R: hydrocarbon functional groups) and aluminum chloride (AlCl3) that enables efficient, room-temperature electrochemical reduction of Al3+ to metallic aluminum (i.e., electrodeposition) and highly reversible oxidative stripping of metal to Al3+ ions (i.e., galvanic dissolution). The chemical formula of our electrolyte solution can be represented by nAlCl3 : mR1-O-R2 (0.1 ≤ m/n ≤ 5). The dialkyl ether (R1-O-R2) systems include widely available industrial solvents such as dipropyl ether (DPE) and dibutyl ether (DBE). At room temperature (~20 ºC) mixing of DPE or DBE (Lewis base) with AlCl3 (Lewis acid) forms yellowish solutions with high concentrations of Al3+ (up to 7.3 M). This unique electrolyte formulation enables highly efficient and reversible electrochemical processes (both electrodeposition and dissolution) and hence can be considered as a potential candidate for (i) high temperature Al coating in industrial processes, (ii) rechargeable aluminum-based batteries. Our novel electrolyte formulation is based on improving the rates of desolvation and resolvation steps during electrochemical processes by suppressing electrostatic interactions of multivalent Al3+ ions via weakly coordinating ethereal based solvents. The DPE/AlCl3 and DBE/AlCl3 electrolyte solutions demonstrate highly reversible Al plating/stripping at room temperature with low overpotential of - 0.2 V vs. Al/Al3+(Figure 1). The electrochemical performance of dialkyl ether-based electrolytes is more efficient and reversible compared to widely used electrolyte systems, such as ionic liquid based solvents reported in literature. Figure 1. Cyclic voltammograms of Pt electrode with the electrolyte solution of (A) AlCl3:DPE and (B) AlCl3:DBE at 1:1.2 (molar ratio) at 0.25 mV s-1 between - 0.8 - 1.5 V vs Al/Al3+. Highly efficient Al plating and stripping behavior is observed.
ACOUSTIC AQUATIC TRACKING TRANSMITTER (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0106)
We developed an acoustic transmitter that can be used to study the behavior and survival of sensitive species such as juvenile American shad. It has a dry mass of 0.05 gram and is 2 mm in diameter and 7.6 mm in length.
Nanoparticles, Methods for Producing Nanoparticles and Nanoparticle Generators
A new method is invented to prepare small cerium oxide nanoparticles of biomedical interest without use of conventional reagents and processes. The method is suitable for implementation as a biomedical nanoparticle generator that can produce suspensions of nanoparticles on demand automatically.
Cyanine-Based Probe\Tag-Peptide Pair for Fluorescence Protein Imaging and Fluorescence Protein Imaging Methods
We have developed a new bisarsenical fluorescent probe, Ascy3, with good fluorescence properties, which is directed to a small tetracysteine binding tag TAB14a with high specificity over existing tetracysteine tags. This new probe is a FRET partner to the original bisarsenical dye FlAsH, making this discovery an important step toward a whole toolkit of colored probes directed to different small binding motifs.
IODINE CAPTURE AND ENCAPSULATION (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0142)
One of the main limitations radioiodine capture is the successful immobilization of the active iodine getter material in a low-porosity (dense) and high-iodine-loaded matrix. Iodine getters include metal-exchanged zeolites, metal-loaded silica-based scaffolds (e.g., aerogels, xerogels), or physisorption-based sorbents like metal-organic frameworks or other organic sorbents (e.g., activated carbon). This invention is based on using metallic bismuth metal to encapsulate the iodine-loaded sorbent into a ceramic-metal composite form where the metal is the bismuth and the ceramic is the metal-iodide (e.g., AgI, CuI, SnI4, BiI3, BiOI). After capturing iodine, the active sorbent, which could be something listed above or a pure metal getter like a metal wire, would be placed in a container with metallic Bi, melted and the metal iodides encapsulated in the Bi metal.
ORGANISM MONITORING SYSTEMS AND ORGANISM MONITORING DEVICES (iEdison No. 0685901-23-0270)
The new radio-frequency (RF) transmitters have been designed to intergrate with altimeter/pressure sensor to address the research needs for bat/wildlife 3D tracking with precise alitiude (Z direction). Inside the altimeter, there is a barometric pressure sensor that measures the air pressure at the current location. The altimeter calculates the pressure difference between the reference pressure (usually the standard atmospheric pressure) and the current pressure. The greater the pressure difference, the higher the current altitude is above the reference point.
DEVICES AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING SHEAR-ASSISTED EXTRUSION, EXTRUSION FEEDSTOCKS, EXTRUSION PROCESSES, AND METHODS FOR PREPARING METAL SHEETS (iEdison No. 0685901-13-0018)
A process for forming extruded products using a device having a scroll face configured to apply a rotational shearing force and an axial extrusion force to the same preselected location on material wherein a combination of the rotational shearing force and the axial extrusion force upon the same location cause a portion of the material to plasticize, flow and recombine in desired configurations. This process provides for a significant number of advantages and industrial applications, including but not limited to extruding tubes used for vehicle components with 50 to 100 percent greater ductility and energy absorption over conventional extrusion technologies, while dramatically reducing manufacturing costs.