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Contract Opportunity

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY

Novel Blade Design for Bottle Crushers and Perforators

A new blade design for bottle crushers and perforators that will cut large holes, without reducing the size of the item, to allow for liquid cleaning for recycling.

Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize this bottle crusher/perforator blade design. This technology transfer opportunity is part of a dedicated effort to convert government-funded research into job opportunities, businesses and ultimately an improved way of life for the American people.

Overview: Waste materials such as waste plastic often have contamination on the interior surfaces of the item that need to be removed before the item can be recycled. Bottles may contain food residue, soaps, oils, etc., from the product they once contained. A liquid cleaning step is needed to remove this contamination; however the design of these items prevents liquid from entering the container and contamination from exiting the container. Waste plastic is a significant issue having global environmental impact. Only a fraction is recycled due to many factors including contamination and low value markets. A new process that will allow waste to be cleaned without destroying the item will help open up the recycling market.

Description: Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory have developed a blade design for a bottle crusher/perforator that will cut large holes in the waste items without destroying the item. These large holes will allow adequate quantities of aqueous or organic solvents to contact the interior surfaces of the containers. Limiting the size reduction of the material at this step is important as the perforation and cleaning step precedes item identification and sorting. It is far more efficient to sort whole materials. These large perforations also keep the containers from floating on top of the wash solutions.

Benefits:

• Enables interior and exterior cleaning to take place before sorting, increasing the number of items that can be identified and recycled.

Applications:

• Waste plastic recycling

Development Status: TRL 6, design has been manufactured and test and functions as expected.

IP Status: Patent Application No. 17/684,414, “Crusher/Perforator for Recyclable Materials,” BEA Docket No. BA-1299.

Additional Information

INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available. Added value is placed on relationships with small businesses, start-up companies, and general entrepreneurship opportunities.

Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Andrew Rankin at td@inl.gov.

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