The private-sector players in the Rapid Commercialization Initiative have been chosen. On March 26, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced nine companies that will join state and federal partners on the RCI team to cooperatively seek ways to streamline the commercialization of environmental technologies. (See Initiatives, February 1996.) RCI will help the chosen companies overcome three barriers to successful marketing of their environmental technologies: finding test beds, verifying performance and costs, and obtaining permits from regulatory agencies. RCI does not provide financial assistance to the companies.
Federal partners in the RCI venture include the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Western Governors' Association, the Southern States Energy Board, and the California EPA are state and regional members of the RCI team.
From a field of 36 proposals, 10 projects were selected on the basis of technology readiness and innovation, promising market outlook and clear commercialization plans, sufficient pre-arranged funding, and organization commitment. Lessons learned from the partnership will be used to develop and implement better technology policies and strategies for the commercialization process.
The 10 selected projects are described below. The first five are environmental remediation technologies, and the second set of five are technologies for contaminant testing or monitoring. Actual agreements with the companies are subject to negotiations.
1. Total Municipal Solids Recovery Lenox, Massachusetts
Technology: An oxyozone biosolids treatment system, based on the
disinfecting properties of ozone, reduces potential human
pathogens in municipal waste water biosolids and other organic
waste streams.
2. Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri
Technology: LASAGNA, a trademarked process, is a comprehensive
in-situ suite of technologies integrated to remove various
contaminants from low-permeability soils. LASAGNA creates
alternate layers of sorption and degradation zones through the
introduction of sorbents, catalytic agents, microbes, oxidants,
and buffers. (See Initiatives,
February 1995.)
3. SELENTEC, Atlanta, Georgia
Technology: MAG-SEP, a trademarked magnetic separations
technology, uses specially designed particles (polymer-coated
magnetite) to selectively adsorb contaminant metals from ground
water. (See Initiatives,
August 1995.)
4. Terra-Kleen Response Group, Inc. Del Mar, California
Technology: The Terra-Kleen solvent extraction technology uses
non-toxic solvents to separate contaminants from soils and
debris.
5. Commodore Environmental Services New York, New York
Technology: Agent 313, a solvated electron chemistry materials
process, destroys hazardous hydrocarbon contaminants in soils.
6. ORS Environmental Systems Greenville, New Hampshire
Technology: A hand-held instrument, incorporating innovative
sensor technology, detects and measures total trihalomethanes in
water to parts per billion levels.
7. ORS Environmental Services
Technology: Hand-held instruments, incorporating innovative
sensor technologies, detect and measure trichloroeythlene and
volatile organic compounds in aqueous solutions to parts per
billion levels.
8. Hanby Environmental Laboratory Procedures, Inc., Wimberley,
Texas
Technology: Hanby Test Kit, a commercially available field kit,
is modified with a spectrometer for immediate quantitative
interpretation of soil and water tests. Sample results are
compared with a photographic standard.
9. Bio-Imaging Research, Inc. Lincolnshire, Illinois
Technology: Digital waste inspection tomography and active and
passive neutron examination and assay permit nondestructive and
noninvasive analysis of sealed radioactive containers.
10. Bladon International, Inc., Oak Brook, Illinois
Technology: A multi-sampling lysimeter installed with a cone
penetrometer samples moisture and contaminants in the vadose
zone. The objective is to deploy to depths of 50 to 100 feet,
retrieve soil pore liquid from the vadose zone, and transport the
liquid samples to the surface for performance verifications.
