Technology transfer, and commercialization

As these processes continue to develop, we also expect to see new modes of cooperation between academia, research institutes, and industry. New and innovative intellectual property (IP) arrangements may be necessary to protect the IP in a fair manner while enabling quick technology transfer and commercial... 

Some successful transfers have taken place, and new approaches to technology transfer and commercialization are being investigated. Our experiences in this area have led to a number of conclusions about the necessary steps to ensure successful treuisfer of Federal Technologies to the private sector (7,8,9). 

The Office of Management Budget (0MB) has identified three major classes of Federal R D programs, each of which is augmented to some extent by technology transfer and commercialization activities (.7). The 0MB R D categories and typical technology transfer activities are presented below, with some comments about inherent policy research Issues and problems. 

Commerce Control List Items dual use (i.e., commercial/military) items that are subject to export control by the Bureau of Export Administration, Department of Commerce. These items have been identified in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (15CFR774) as export controlled for reasons of national security, crime control, technology transfer and scarcity of materials. 

Although HPLC column technology is considered to be a mature field now, improvements and new developments are being made continuously in the stationary phases. One of the improvements has been the reduction in particle sizes. Smaller particles help to improve mass transfer and provide better efficiency. Manufacturers are producing particles down to 1.5 J,m in diameter, although 3- and 5- J,m particles are still the most popular. Because of the smaller particle sizes, the backpressure increases proportionally to the inverse of the square of the particle size. Most commercially available HPLC systems cannot accommodate the pressures required to operate these columns at optimum flow rates. This has led to the introduction of systems that run at high pressures. 

Let us now attempt to review the field experience of seawater RO plants, perhaps the most important aspect of any commercial process, information most critical to the potential plant buyer. My comments here are biased by our experience at the Desalination Technology Transfer Center in St. Croix, where we have been operating seawater RO plants for more than four years. While it is certain that no two facilities have equivalent operational practice, experience, and problems, and I wish to emphasize this, nevertheless, I believe that by discussing the most limited operations information available, in light of our experience, it will make my comments more meaningful. 

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