Additively Manufactured Bipropellant Rocket Engines
ARC is taking traditional engine design methods into the future. Utilizing artificial intelligence, ARC designs mission-specific engines tailored to the needs of the customer. This rapidly iterative design reduces engineering hours required, reducing time, weight, and cost. ARC’s intellectual property describes a biomimetic fuel injection mechanism that reduces pressure loss during fluid flow and improves combustion stability and efficiency. Computational fluid dynamic and finite element simulations can be performed to optimize the geometry of the entire engine prior to manufacturing, providing efficiency improvements that directly lead to dollars saved on and off the launch pad. ARC’s technology allows for robust testing in silico, allowing for more focused testing after printing. Blending design and advanced manufacturing is in ARC’s core. Metal additive manufacturing techniques (DMLS) create opportunities for features impossible to create with traditional machining techniques, such as embedded regenerative cooling channels. Compared to traditional machining, additive manufacturing is economical, fast, lowers the scrap rate, and significantly lessens tolerance error buildup. These benefits allow ARC to provide high-performance, low-cost engines with one-fourth the lead time. This translates to more frequent launches at lower costs to customers, fulfilling ARC’s goal of democratizing access to space.
Athens, OH
www.ohio.edu/engineering/ceer/
Booth: 331
The GreenBox: Ammonia and Nitrate Removal with Energy Cogeneration
Currently, wastewater treatment solutions for ammonia consume a significant amount of energy, have high operational costs, require significant capital investment, are not easily adaptable to tighter emissions regulations and are large in size. In addition, current methods do not scale-down well for non-point source pollution, which usually comes from rural areas such as livestock facilities and fertilizer run-off leading to algae bloom. For this reason, the EPA has limited the nitrate contamination level in drinking water to 10 mg/l with further reduction under consideration. Ohio University’s patented ammonia electrolysis is the only technology that allows the direct conversion of ammonia into benign pure nitrogen gas and pure fuel grade hydrogen gas. The process, also known as the “Ammonia GreenBox” is compact, consumes less energy, reduces capital and operational costs and is amenable to regulatory changes via process control. Finally, the GreenBox provides an opportunity to generate hydrogen for use within the wastewater treatment plant infrastructure. As megatrends in population growth and urbanization continue to increase, the GreenBox provides the opportunity to retrofit and improve on current remediation plants, while also aiding in the next generation of plants that can handle more waste output from municipalities.
Geoanalytics Platform for Special Operations Mission Readiness
EPIC Ready objectively measures the tasks, conditions and standards assigned to the Joint Mission Essential Tasks (JMETs) associated with a unit’s objectives. This data, which helps determine training effectiveness and mission readiness, can be easily exported to JTIMS. It improves rapid field reviews. Daily objectives reports, which can be completed in minutes, capture whether training objectives are being met and, if not, provide the instant information needed to adjust on the fly.Report. From exercise planners to unit commanders to the joint staff, leadership on all levels receives the exact information needed to determine success and, if shortfalls exist, help determine why. In addition to better information, PAS also reduces the time required for after-action reporting from months to days. Furthermore, you can create immediate lessons learned to enhance planning for the next joint exercise life cycle. Intuitive and simple to use, PAS has the flexibility needed to handle today’s changing requirements. PAS provides the unit performance data needed to ensure force readiness and increase return on investment (ROI) in training. Spanning the Joint Exercise Life Cycle.PAS helps:,Plan and run exercises,Measure resultsFine-tune training Quantify force readiness Improve ROI
Accelerated Neutral Atom Beam (ANAB) technology for polymer-free drug elution barrier on implantable medical devices
Accelerated Neutral Atom Beam (ANAB) technology is an accelerated particle beam gaining acceptance as a tool for nanoscale surface modification of implantable devices. ANAB is created by acceleration of neutral gas atoms with very low energies under vacuum which bombard a material surface, modifying it to a shallow depth of 2-3 nm. When ANAB is applied to the surface of a medical implant coated with organic therapeutic agent, such treatment results in formation of nanometer-thin carbon-rich scaffold on the surface of the coating. The scaffold is formed due to the difference in sputtering threshold between carbon and other atoms present in the drug molecule. Once formed, such carbon-rich layer serves as a native elution barrier for the drug, slowing down its release into the body and prolonging its therapeutic effect. Importantly, such property is achieved without use of polymer binding agents that are commonly used to create elution barriers. Polymer breakdown in traditional drug coatings has been identified as detrimental. We have demonstrated an efficient creation of drug elution barrier with ANAB technology on three different classes of drugs: titanium coated with antibiotic (kanamycin), CoCr coronary stent coated with rapamycin, and titanium coated with a growth factor (BMP-2).
Accelerated Neutral Atom Beam (ANAB) technology for nanoscale processing of solid surfaces and thin films
Existing surface modification technologies fall short of nanoscale requirements due to high particle energy and electrically charged nature of traditional ion beam and plasma-based techniques. Our Accelerated Neutral Atom Beam (ANAB) technique imparts beneficial functionality on metal, ceramic, glass, and polymer surfaces without such detrimental effects associated with existing technologies. The beam is created by expansion of gas through a specially shaped nozzle into vacuum. Due to adiabatic cooling, nanometer size clusters are formed, consisting of 500-5,000 gas atoms. The clusters are then turned into cluster ions by electron impact ionization and accelerated by high-voltage electric field. Finally, cluster dissociation is promoted by gas collisions, resulting in an intense, highly collimated beam of energetic, electrically neutral gas atoms with controllable energy ranging from less than 10 to beyond 100 eV per atom, an ideal range for many nanoscale surface modifications. ANAB enables highly controlled material removal from the surface, at a rate ranging from a few angstroms to about 20 nm per second. Due to a property known as lateral sputtering, ANAB can reduce surface roughness down to 1 angstrom level, while delivering surface modification to no more than 2-3 nm, levels unachievable with any other technique.
Accelerated Neutral Atom Beam (ANAB) technology for improved biocompatibility of implantable medical devices
Accelerated Neutral Atom Beam (ANAB) technology is an accelerated particle beam gaining acceptance as a tool for nanoscale surface modification of implantable devices. ANAB is created by acceleration of neutral gas atoms with very low energies under vacuum which bombard a material surface, modifying it to a depth of 2-3 nm. This is a non-additive technology that results in modifications of surface topography, wettability, and surface chemistry. These modifications are understood to be important in cell-surface interactions on implantable medical devices. Controlling surface properties of biomaterials is vital in improving the biocompatibility of devices by enhancing integration and reducing bacterial attachment. When treated with ANAB, materials including polymers (PEEK, polypropylene, PTFE), and metals (titanium, CoCr, stainless steel) develop a nanotextured surface of 20-50 nm from peak to peak. Such nanotexture is known to promote tissue integration. In addition, ANAB treatment increases surface hydrophilicity, another factor favorable for biocompatibility. Finally, ANAB treated surfaces demonstrate bacterial inhibition, reducing bacterial attachment to the surface and preventing colonization. This has been observed for many common gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens. FDA approvals have been recently granted to PEEK spinal fusion devices treated by ANAB; other devices are under evaluation.
Si-Li-O nanocomposites as an anode material for Li-ion battery
- New nanoparticles which is composed of metal Si and Lithium silicate with particle sizes of 80 ~ 150 nm - New nanoparticles have high performance-active material as a Li-ion battery’s anode - Initial discharge capacity 900 mAh/g, initial columbic efficiency 85%, retention 90 %(@50cycle) - Production method was based on evaporation and condensation process
Berkeley, CA
www.lbl.gov/ https://ipo.lbl.gov/for-industry/tech-index/
Booth: 303
IDEALM: Efficient Data Reduction with Locally Exchangeable Measures
LBNL has developed IDEALM, a dynamic sampling algorithm that reduces large streaming data, yet provides accurate information about the data for analysis. IDEALM could prove beneficial to network routers, for use in network monitoring mechanisms; facilities that generate large amounts of data, as a means to reduce data volume; and social networks, among other applications. IDEALM can be used for streaming data in high frequency as well as stored data. Large streaming data are an essential part of computational modeling and network communications. Yet such data are generally intractable to store, compute, search, and retrieve. This dynamic data reduction algorithm detects redundant patterns and reduces data size up to 100 times by exploiting the exchangeability of measurements. IDEALM exploits both redundancies of data in a time series and redundancies of data distribution. Drawbacks to today's common techniques in network monitoring and other practices to reduce the size of collected monitoring measurements -- such as storing a random sample or spectral analysis -- are impractical for large streaming data in high frequency. LBNL's IDEALM resolves issues with current approaches.
Micro-porous metal sheet membrane for high throughput filtering
Thinness and uniform small pore sizes are the salient features of MoleculeWorks@TM metal sheet membrane products, compared to other porous metal or metal foam materials. The uniform small pore size provides high filtering efficiency, while thinness of the membrane sheet enables filtering to be conducted at high throughput and renders membrane cleaning by simple back flushing. The surface pore size can be tailored over the range of 10 to 1000nm to meet different application needs. Complete filtering of micro-algae at micrometer sizes from water, colloidal particles of about 50nm from water, and aerosol particulates of 30 to 300nm from air are demonstrated. The novel membrane can be used to build compact high throughput filters for a range of applications, including i) treatment of seawater and grey water, ii) air purification, iii) cleanup of black smog or soot particulates from combustion exhaust, and iv) versatile laboratory filtration.
Diagnostic kit for real-time monitoring resistance in targeted cancer therapy
Targeted drug is common in cancer therapy. Immuno-oncology drugs only effect in 10-25％ cancers. CAR-T tumor immunotherapies only treat small number leukemias. Drug resistances may occur post-therapy: Some patients innately don't respond to a targeted drug in initial treatment; Tumor may develop resistance against an initial effective drug post-0.6-2 years. Drug resistances are often detected too late and cause mortality with CT scan 3 months post-therapy. About 60% drug resistances are not relative to current known oncogene, undetectable by liquid biopsy (ctDNA, CTC, exosome gene assay); their results often false-negative. Current liquid biopsy delay disease treatments, since presence of CTC or ctDNA indicate resistant tumors had metastasized earlier. By directly assaying serum biomarker downstream of oncoproteins that targeted drugs are acting, clinical trials showed our liquid biopsy IVD kit early (2-weeks post-therapy) and “truly” real-time monitor therapy resistance of most drugs and most cancer types, solve problems of CT, liquid biopsy in detecting resistance, help patients get correct drug in time. Our product can facilitate precision medicine; help CT and liquid biopsy get real-time monitoring resistance ability, save cancer treatment expenses.
Safer Solvents for Contact-Adhesives
Solvent-based contact adhesives are used in everyday construction items and are typically used to bond wood, metals, leather, fabric etc. Solvent blends including toluene, hexane, acetone, and other solvents are typically being used to solvate polymers (rubbers and resins) in contact adhesive formulations. These solvents fall in the classification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and present potential health, safety and environmental concerns to both the user and the surrounding environment. Inventors at UML have identified solvent blends that substitute for these hazardous solvents in these solvent-based contact adhesives to avoid the negative health effects. Few solvent blends have been identified as possible solutions to this problem: • Ternary solvent blend comprised of methyl acetate, methyl cyclohexane, and cyclohexene • Binary solvent blend comprised of methyl acetate and methyl cyclohexane. • Ternary solvent blend comprising Acetone, PCBTF (Parachloro-benzotrifluoride) & Cyclo-hexane. Solvent-based contact adhesives are used in everyday construction items and are typically used to bond: o Wood o Metal o Leather o Fabric • Particleboards to create countertops for kitchens and bathrooms
