Trinity College Dublin looks to bring cleantech innovation to market

An eternal lantern powered by the sun, an energy efficient radiator, and membrane technology that uses carbon nanotubes are a few cleantech innovations being spun out of the world’s 43rd top university.

Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin showcased 15 of its newest technologies last week, with a handful falling under the cleantech sector, that are now ready for commercialization, Graham McMullin told the Cleantech Group today. McMullin is a case manager for physical sciences within Trinity’s technology transfer office.

McMullin gave the Cleantech Group an inside look at the technologies, their potential applications, and offered specifics about some that are now looking for industry collaboration and investment to get to market.

The research has been funded to date by government development agency Enterprise Ireland, which supports indigenous companies and academic research. Each of the projects received about €100,000 ($150,000).

“More recently, Ireland has done quite well economically, so a lot of money was put into research in the last four to five years,” McMullin said. “We’re starting to see the output of that research money.”

McMullin said the technology transfer office has also recently boosted its staff to seven employees, up from two a year ago, to help drive the commercial side of the research.

Enterprise Ireland has backed other cleantech companies including Waterford, Ireland-based Technology from Ideas, a seed investment and commercialization company, which teamed with Wilmington, Del.’s DuPont in 2008 to jointly develop a passive protection material technology for wave power systems (see Irish wave power gets a boost from DuPont).

One of Trinity’s recent inventions is called the Eternal Candle, a renewable solar heat storage technology that has the potential to provide light for the developing world, McMullin said.

The research team led by Anthony Robinson invented a white light-emitting diode (WLED) lantern, powered by the sun. At night, the device converts the stored heat into electricity, which drives the WLED. The lamp doesn’t require batteries or have any running costs, but it’s not exactly eternal. The device is designed to provide light for four to five hours, McMullin said.

“The technology is best suited for off-grid communities, so the likes of sub-Saharan Africa, China and some parts of India where people don’t have electricity coming into their homes,” McMullin said.

There are currently two billion people worldwide that don’t have electricity and burn fossil fuels for illumination, according to the college. A European patent for the Eternal Candle was filed in April 2009.

Another recent device is a low-temperature heat pipe radiator that offers high heat transfer, which could serve as a replacement for existing radiators, McMullin said.

According to the college, traditional radiators usually require hot water at 70 to 85 degrees Celsius to generate sufficient heat. Geothermal heat pumps have the ability to generate much lower temperatures, between 45 and 55 degrees Celsius. However, they require oversized radiators, fan-based convectors, heating beneath the floor or complete re-insulation for home heating.

Trinity’s radiator, which uses low-temperature water from a boiler or geothermal heat pump, offers what researchers said is high heat output for relatively low temperature input (around 55 degrees Celsius). Heat pipes and fins in the compact design work to improve energy efficiency compared to standard radiators.

The technology is at the patent cooperation treaty (PCT) international stage, McMullin said. Trinity has agreed to do an evaluation license of the technology with an undisclosed Irish company.

Another invention called Carbopower is related to the preparation of semi-permeable membranes that can be used as pressure-retarded osmosis membranes in salinity power generation. The membranes are fabricated using carbon nanotubes that make them good conductors of electricity, McMullin said.

In power generation plants where membranes typically become clogged, current could be run through the carbon nanotubes to de-clog the membranes, offering an advantage over currently available membranes, McMullin said.

Tustin, Calif.-based DXV Water Technologies said last month it was looking into ultrasonic vibration as a method for cleaning membranes, which could be used to keep them from being fouled (see California startup makes plans to install second desal device).

Trinity’s proof of concept has been established with the membrane technology, but the idea needs further development to bring it to market. A priority patent was filed this month on the technology, with plans to move into the PCT international stage.

McMullin said another Trinity-originated cleantech innovation that’s being tackled by the company Spirit of Ireland uses hydro storage techniques to capture potential energy and release it through hydro turbines to generate electricity at the gigawatt level.

“It’s about marrying wind energy and hydro storage, which may be a new idea,” McMullin said.

The company is currently seeking investment to implement the concept, possibly from the government, McMullin said. The technology could help meet Ireland's energy requirements, especially during peak periods.

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