LSU ranked 93 out of 100 universities granted U.S. utility patents in a recent report by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.
LSU professors have inventions patented in various fields across the university, including from the chemistry, biology and engineering department. Additionally, the university and student researchers allow professors to research their ideas and test them out before getting them approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Biology professor Jim Moroney’s research focuses on photosynthesis, and he currently has two patents that could increase crop yield in certain crops.
While doing research, Maroney noticed that some types of algae were better at acquiring the carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis than other plants, and he researched why the algae was able to obtain more.
While Maroney was studying photosynthesis at LSU, free air carbon dioxide enrichment experiments were being conducted in Illinois. The experiments showed that certain crops responded positively to carbon dioxide blowing across the top, which improved photosynthesis and crop yield. Maroney’s research discovered certain transporters and proteins were needed for the process.
“Most of the crop plants are what we call C3 photosynthesis and their photosynthesis is relatively inefficient…wheat, soybean, rice, are all C3 plants,” Maroney said. “In theory, this invention could help photosensors in any of those major crops. And if it were, you’d be talking five to 10 to 15% increases, which will be very substantial.”
While his work is currently focused on algae, Maroney said he hopes to expand his research to other plants.
Department of Chemistry chair John Pojman currently has two patents and multiple pending. Pojman works in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture to find new solutions to common agriculture problems.
One patent Pojman holds is for an adhesive that can be programmed to stick on demand. The idea initially started when a company came to him for a better way to stick insulation on walls.
“The company got us motivated to look at a very specific application for construction, but that got us motivated to look at other applications,” Pojman said.
Still working on testing the patent, his lab found that simple items like watermelon seeds are a good catalyst for polymer reactions in various fields.
“This could be useful in marine applications because the fact that we can do it, it can cure underwater,” Pojman said. “The materials are also not particularly toxic, so they’re safer than other materials. And the fact that we can program it…some other adhesives, once you touch things together they’re locked. This gives you time to work.”
Petroleum engineering professor Dandina Rao has two patents for a technology called gas assisted gravity drainage, GAGD for short, that aims to reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions.
Many oil companies burn their extracted natural gas in a process known as flaring. However, Rao said this process causes greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and methane to pollute the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
Rao is working on technology to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions and enhance the production of oil by eliminating flares at oil sites.
The first of his two patents proposes using existing vertical wells as gas injectors and drilling horizontal production wells near the bottom of the oil zone in the ground to produce the oil being pushed out by the expanding gas zone.
“It’s a top-to-bottom vertical displacement of oil by the injected gas, whereas the current industry practice is to displace the oil horizontally by injecting CO2,” Rao said.
The second patent deals with accomplishing the same objective by using only horizontal wells for both injecting the gas as well as to produce the oil. This saves significant drilling costs, sequesters large quantities of the injected gas within the reservoir and produces similar oil recoveries.
Rao said this process is beneficial as it’s more environmentally friendly and allows the gas to move the way it naturally wants to do.
“Let’s not fight with nature, let’s work with nature. Nature wants the gas to be at the top. So our process allows the gas to be the top…Thus working with nature helps us to solve the environmental issue of CO2 emissions as well as provide the oil industry an incentive of increased productivity,” Rao said.
The GAGD process can yield such high oil recoveries even by injecting the flue gas generated at the site by burning the natural gas that is currently being flared and wasted.
Currently, Rao said oil companies recover only five to 10% of their oil with a water-alternating-gas process by injecting carbon dioxide that is purchased and transported from naturally occurring carbon dioxide reservoirs in the country. With his GAGD method, Rao has seen the process work to recover 65 to 95% of the oil in the lab experiments.
“All oil companies should be using the GAGD process going forward in suitable reservoirs,” Rao said.
Mechanical engineering professor Guoqiang Li currently has 17 patents. He said these patents can be divided into three categories: self-healing polymers, inventions for the oil and gas industry and infrastructure solutions.
The first category includes self-healing polymer composites that allow different technology to mimic the self-healing process of human skin. For example, Li said that instead of spending money to repair a minor dent in aircrafts or cars, the self-healing polymer can fix the dents just by heating up.
The second category focuses on application in the oil and gas industry, including a shape-memory polymer. This specific invention injects a polymer in natural cracks that blocks it off so oil companies can drill safely.
The last group of patents focuses on infrastructure. Li said that when cement concrete pavement is new, it often has a lot of cracks, adding that water can cause further damage to the pavement with the weight of heavy traffic. One of Li’s patents aims to solve this problem.
While most matter expands when heated and contracts when cooled, Li created a sealant that behaves “exactly opposite” to common physics. The new sealant expands when cooled down, and shrinks when heated up, which would further reduce the cracks in the pavement.
Li said the pavement sealant will create safer infrastructure for communities.
“If you extend the service life of the infrastructure, that saves a huge amount of money [and] also makes people travel safer, and saves you lots of commute time,” Li said.
Li believes these patents are just the first step in solutions to modern problems. With the help of LSU, he hopes to continue working on his ideas and creating new inventions.
“I always say that, you know, I’m very happy… From the department, from the college, from the university, from the [intellectual property] office, they have given me a lot of support. And that’s actually the driving force for me to continuously…do good work for new inventions,” Li said.
