Announcing Our 2024 Finalists

Congratulations to the seven finalists who will be competing for the Grand Prize during a live presentation round in November:

AstroAnt: A Miniature Symbiotic Robotic Serving on the Outside Surfaces of Spacecraft, Rovers, and Landers for Inspection and Diagnostic Tasks

Cosmetic Silica Upcycled from Rice Husk as Natural Alternative to Microplastic Powders

Laser-Generated Anti-Icing and Anti-Fogging Transparent Materials

Multi-Modal Traffic Detection System

NETrolyze: A Novel Immunotherapy for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

RHOBARR Barrier Dispersions Platform

Thin-Film Thermoelectric Cooling Device

Watch this space for more announcements, including the Top 100 entries and Top Ten most popular.

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Read About Past Winners’ Success Stories

Special Report spotlights the eight top entries in 2023 as well as past winners whose ideas are now in the market, making a difference in the world.

Click here to read more

A ‘Create the Future’ Winner Featured on ‘Here’s an Idea’

Spinal cord injury affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. In this Here’s an Idea podcast episode, Dr. Johannes Dapprich, NeuroPair’s CEO and founder, discusses their groundbreaking approach that addresses a critical need in the medical field, offering a fast and minimally invasive solution to a long-standing problem.

Listen now

Thank you from our Sponsors

“At COMSOL, we are very excited to recognize innovators and their important work this year. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Create the Future Design Contest, which is an excellent platform for designers to showcase their ideas and products in front of a worldwide audience. Best of luck to all participants!”

— Bernt Nilsson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, COMSOL, Inc.

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— Kevin Hess, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mouser Electronics

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Plant Oils to Jet Fuel

Votes: 0
Views: 6112
Sustainable Technologies

Breakthrough Bio Fuel and Bio Chemical Production Process

Overview: Researchers at Montana State University – Northern have developed a low energy chemical cracking process which converts plant oils to advanced transportation fuels (drop in) and oleo-chemical precursors. This patented metathesis process can utilize a diverse source of feedstocks including non-food oil seeds. The most compelling aspect of this technology is that it yields high-aromatic products which can meet or exceed jet fuel requirements. Additional novel aspects of the process are that it occurs at both low temperature and low pressure and does not utilize water.
Patented Process

Background: To date, synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) and hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) produced by a Fischer-Tropsch (FT) method and hydrotreating of natural oils, respectively are the only advanced renewable jet fuels that have been certified by ASTM. While SPK and HEFA are both non-oxygenated, containing carbon chain lengths comparable to conventional jet fuel, they have deficiencies in terms of fuel properties mainly due to the lack of aromatic hydrocarbons. This impart limits their blending ratio. Moreover, both SPK and HEFA are produced from high energy input processes.
The new process discussed here is an attractive alternative to these current methods because the product contains up to 27% aromatic hydrocarbons and requires mild conditions to achieve good conversion. Additionally, the process produces a high value co-product -mid chain triglycerides - that can be marketed to the oleo-chemical industries. The process utilizes known components, common inexpensive inputs and continuous flow reactions. Yields are approximately 70%, non-optimized.
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Benefits of the process:
• Yields fuel with 29% aromatics content which it makes it purely a drop in fuel
• Low energy Input
• Low temperature (less than 100 °C)
• Low Pressure (less than 8 bars)
• Low Carbon Footprint
• Does not utilize water Versatile Process, yields different transportation fuels without any change to equipment
• Co-products specific for oleo-chemical industry
• Flexible feedstocks
• Process produces no waste

This is the research of Dr. Nestor Soriano and collaborators Dr. Randall Maglinao and Akash Narani at the Bio-Energy Center at Montana State University – Northern

www.bioenergytestingcenter.com.

Funding for this technology was provided by the US Department of Energy.

  • Awards

  • 2012 Top 100 Entries

Voting

Voting is closed!

  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Gary Bloomer
  • Type of entry:
    team
    Team members:
    Nestor Soriano, Ph.D.
    Randall Maglinao, Ph.D.
    Akash Narani, PE
  • Patent status:
    pending