Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40Technology Transfer 32 DOE’s Lab-Corps is a market-driven training program designed to facilitate the transfer of clean energy technologies to commercial use. The seven-week curriculum provides scientists with a better understanding of the commercialization process. In the words of one participant, it teaches scientists to apply the scientific method to business by developing a hypothesis, a business value proposition(s) for their innovation, and testing it through the Customer Discovery process in the marketplace. The program’s goal is to strengthen business culture at national laboratories by focusing on private sector needs and validating the significance of research. By engaging inventors in entrepreneurial endeavors, they can focus their efforts on Lab-Corps industry-relevant challenges. The researchers are, forevermore, better equipped to discover market needs and research relevance when they start their next project. INL has participated in the DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Lab-Corps program since its inception. As one of one of 11 laboratories participating in program, INL has trained more researchers (10 teams) than any other participating laboratory. For FY 2016, INL had five entrepreneurial teams consisting of three people each: a principal investigator, entrepreneurial lead, and an industry mentor. Each team focuses on one new technology. Listed below are the five teams and their technologies. Advanced Renewable Aerial Inspections The Advanced Renewable Aerial Inspections (ARAI) technology utilizes unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to perform safer, more economical inspections on multiple types of wind turbines, including off-shore wind turbines, to collect data. The UAS data can be used to help determine maintenance requirements and detect issues and trends to help wind farm operators, public utilities, turbine manufacturers, and maintenance companies make rapid, informed decisions in how they manufacture, build, deploy, and maintain their products. Through its participation in Lab-Corps, the team hopes to better understand the challenges of taking innovative ideas from concept to commercialization and, ultimately with the help of their commercialized technology, help industry provide additional U.S. energy jobs. Switchable Polarity Solvent Forward Osmosis Switchable polarity solvents (SPSs) are an exciting new class of materials that undergo a polarity shift upon being exposed to a chemical agent. The switch leads to profound changes in solubility and phase behavior, and SPSs display many of the beneficial characteristics of room temperature ionic liquids without the cost or difficulty of recycling. This team envisions a range of possible applications for this technology, but their initial target areas will be industrial water treatment and biomass fractionation. The use of SPSs in water treatment processes has the potential to cost-effectively obtain high water recoveries from high-salinity and high-fouling industrial waters. The team’s biomass project will use SPSs to fractionate biomass such that it can be merchandized, allowing the biomass industry to compete with the petrochemical infrastructure. With the help of Lab-Corps, the team hopes to explore various paths forward, demonstrate the processes, and bring the technology to market. Principal Investigator: Aaron Wilson Entrepreneurial Lead: Carter Fox Industry Mentor: Shawn Perkins Industry Mentor: David Noack Principal Investigator: Matthew Balderree Entrepreneurial Lead: Corey Smith Industry Mentor: Wendolyn Holland