The FLC's 1997 Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer have been selected and 30 winning teams will receive their awards on April 15, at a ceremony in East Brunswick, New Jersey, site of the FLC spring National Meeting. Of the 30 winners, eight of the projects came from labs in the Far West Region. DoE-Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in Washington state, had the strongest showing of any one lab in the nation - with four winning projects. DoE-Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) of California produced three winners (all from the Lab's Laser Program), and the USDA-ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory in Kimberly, Idaho, received its first FLC Excellence Award.

The award winning teams and projects are:

• PNNL - Wes Lawrence, Gautam Pillay, Jeff Surma, Garry Bryan, and Loren Schmid teamed to transfer a defense-related nuclear waste treatment technology to EOSystems Inc. of San Jose, CA, a company capable of putting the technology to broad use. Catalyzed Electrochemical Oxidation (CEO) is an electrochemical process that provides a viable alternative to incineration for the destruction of hazardous solid and liquid wastes. In 1996, the CEO process received a R&D 100 Award.
• PNNL - Jim Carrol, Gregory A. Silva, and Roy D. Wiprud created and commercialized a remarkable new software which saves time and money by automating and expediting the entire purchasing card process. PNNL saved $2M in the first year utilizing this purchasing card program. The P-Card Solution package is being marketed through Credit Card Solutions Inc. (CCSI) of Richland, WA, to organizations with a purchasing operation involving at least 50 card holders. CCSI is a spin-off company from PNNL's Entrepreneurial Leave of Absence Program.
• PNNL - David W. Koppenaal, Charles J. Barinaga, and Gregory C. Eiden developed and transferred to industry the Plasma Source Quistor (PSQ) mass spectrometer that measures inorganic and isotopic components of samples collected for various environmental and industrial monitoring purposes. Finnigan Corp., one of the pre-eminent manufacturers of mass spectrometers in the world, recognized the PSQ's potential and is providing financial support for the entire development as part of its partnership role. In 1996 the PSQ project received a R&D 100 Award.
• PNNL - Linda M. Connell, Craig C. Conner, Robert G. Lucas, Eric J. Makela, and Todd Taylor teamed to make the Model Energy Code more understandable and accessible to federal, state, and local government agencies, building code officials, builders and manufacturers of energy-efficient materials, and ultimately, helped ensure energy efficiency in new homes for the American consumer. The PNNL team, with guidance from DoE's Office of Codes and Standards, was able to turn the collection of complex technical requirements comprising the code into a simple, yet comprehensive, set of tools called MECcheck™ . This tool kit has been distributed to over 10,000 users and is used for code compliance in 10 states.
• LLNL - Thomas E. McEwan, Patrick Welsh, and Gregory Dallum teamed to work with 18 companies to bring the "electronic dipstick" technology into the marketplace. At least three firms are already shipping products based on the technology. The dipstick is expected to be used to measure levels of gas, oil, chemicals, petrochemicals, pulp, paper, food and pharmaceuticals, plus environmental monitoring. Possible future consumer uses for liquid level sensing are for washing machines, autos, and toilet tanks. In 1996 this project received a R&D 100 Award.
• LLNL - Luis Zapata and Lloyd Hackel assisted Intevac RTP Systems in an effort to reduce the time for five of the many manufacturing steps needed to produce flat panel displays to five minutes - from as much as 30 hours. Originally developed for defense applications, Intevac incorporated a lab arc lamp and reflector technology into a machine called a rapid thermal processor. This machine helps make the flat panel display screens used in laptop computers, videocamera viewfinders, and other electronic equipment.
• LLNL - Booth R. Myers, Hao-Lin Chen, Glenn Meyer, and Dino Ciarlo teamed with American International Technologies, of Torrance, CA, to develop a new sealed tube electron beam technology that eliminates the need for costly vacuum systems used in conventional electron beam equipment. The technology's sealed electron tubes cost 10 times less than current electron beam systems, are smaller and easier to use, and reduce worker exposure to X-rays and high electrical voltages. Electron beams are utilized to process floppy disks for computers and medical supplies as well as process inks, adhesives, and paints -- without creating the pollutants caused by other processing technologies. This technology won a R&D 100 Award in 1995.
• USDA-ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory's Robert E. Sojka and Rodrick D. Lentz developed and transferred Polyacrylamide (PAM), an environmentally safe chemical used widely in municipal water treatment, food processing and other bio-sensitive applications. When added to irrigation water, at the rate of only one pound per acre, it reduces erosion of newly-cultivated furrows an average of 94 percent. In 1996, the second year that PAM was available, farmers in the U.S. used it on over 250,000 acres of furrow-irrigated land and saved an estimated 5 million tons of agricultural soil from erosion. Potential market for this simple-to-use treatment could reach $1 billion world-wide. This technology also received a 1996 Technological Advancement Award from the 39 member country International Erosion Control Association.

Excerpted from:

• Battelle's Pacific Northwest Division publication "Greenie"
• UC-LLNL's publication "Newsline"
• IECA press release