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Tag Archives: Centrifugation Technology

Catching Up & Cleaning Up: Oil Spills and Nanomaterials

Posted in Cleantech

The Washington Post reported this week how the federal government (and the governed private sector) failed to learn enough and take sufficient action following the Exxon Valdez spill twenty years ago.  In particular, official recommendations were made twenty years ago after the Valdez spill to fund research and development to improve oil cleanup following spills.   Cleanup technology had stagnated, it was found twenty years ago, and the government needed to get active on spill cleanup technology.  So what has been done in the subsequent twenty years?  Not enough, according to the Post. 

What was the role of nanotechnology during this time?  During….

 

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Oil Spills, Costner, and Federal Laboratory Research

Posted in Cleantech

Technology transfer – which sometimes some might venture to be a dry, legal subject for lawyers – is now close to a major news story. Kevin Costner, of course, has been in the headline news concerning his company’s technology for separating oil and water for help in the current, still growing Gulf disaster.   

Costner’s company (or companies) apparently owns or licenses a series of patents related to the centrifugation technology (e.g., see US Patent Nos. 4,959,158; 5,571,070; 5,591,3405,762,8005,908,376; and 6,363,611). The original ’158 patent traces back to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory and inventor Dave Meikrantz. The technology transfer from federal lab to Costner’s company was even highlighted as a leading example in the book Technology Transfer for Entrepreneurs: A Guide to Commercializing Federal Laboratory Innovations by Clifford Gross and Joseph Allen (2003). These patents were commercialized in 1990′s in response to the Valdez oil spill disaster.

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