Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Partners sought to exploit patent on pulverizing liquids using gas flows

Country of Origin: Germany
Reference Number: TODE20160617002
Publication Date: 23 June 2016

Summary

A German SME, specialised in producing fine powders (e.g. metal powder) through atomization, is looking for industry and research partners to exploit a patent on pulverizing liquids using gas flows. The technology can also be adapted to the spinning of non-woven fabrics. Main advantage of the technology is that it results in small, fine particles of the material being atomized. Partners are sought for a licence or technical cooperation agreement to extend the technology to other applications.

Description

The company, a German SME specialised in producing fine powders through atomization, has developed a process for gas-atomization of pure metals and alloys. It has been used since the early 1990ies to produce metal powder with very small particles and a high density. 



The basic principle to atomize molten metal is a special gas-dynamic effect which results in a splitting of the liquid jet into droplets by using a laval nozzle. A laval nozzle is a tube that is usually used to accelerate a hot, pressurized gas passing through it to a higher speed in the axial (thrust) direction, by converting the heat energy of the flow into kinetic energy.



Additionally, since 2002 the company has started to develop a process for the spinning of polymers, such as polypropylene (PP) and others, to produce nonwovens by using the same gas-dynamic principle. Later, also solution-spun polymers, such as cellulose, poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) and aramides have been spun successfully to nonwoven textiles. In 2009, the company started to make trials for the atomization of water or petrol with air. The idea was to apply the laval-atomization for other liquids to supply motors, turbines or chemical reaction modules. For example, the first trials to atomize urea for reducing the NOX (*mono-nitrogen oxides) gases in the tail pipe of cars showed that in some cases the mean particle size of droplets were smaller so that the reduction of NOX worked better compared to conventional spraying techniques. But the trials also showed that the atomization unit has to be designed especially for the relevant application and that more research for the best nozzle type still has to be done.



The main advantages of this technology approach are the following: 

•	quality improvement of metal powder and non-woven fabrics

•	different application fields for different industrial scenarios

•	reduction of NOX gases in different application fields



Examples for further exploitation are: 

Development of atomizing nozzles 

•	for gasoline with air for car motors

•	for urea with air for tail pipes of car motors

•	for natural gas with air for turbines

•	for chemical substances for catalytic reaction, where fine droplets are required (e.g. flue gas treatment)

•	for rocket propulsion

•	for mixing of liquid with a gas

•	for mixing of two gases with a gas



For all these scenarios, the company is looking for partners to exploit their patent on pulverizing liquids using gas flows.

The company is looking for research partners for a technical cooperation agreement where the partner would be able to run the atomization trials for new application fields after having received the nozzles manufactured by the German SMEs. 

The company is also looking for other companies as partners for a licence agreement where partners would be able to start serial manufacturing of nozzles and selling to relevant industries. 

In both cases, the company expects to extend its business range and the international commercialization of their technology. 

The company does not have too much knowledge of the automobile industry, combustion engineering and applications for atomization of liquids for catalytic reaction etc. yet. Potential partners, with their particular requirements for specific atomization tasks, would give the company a challenge to exploit this specific effect, while the company contributes to a cooperation by bringing in their own experience and a patent.

Advantages and Innovations

The company is a small company that has developed the core equipment by themselves.  

The company operates a workshop with two turning laces and other standard equipment for metalworking. It has trained its suppliers to fabricate precisely according to the workshop drawings. The engineers of the company can design and construct the specific parts of their existing plants and would be able to design and manufacture special nozzles for atomization of liquids for various applications.  

The company has know-how about metal melts of more than 2000°C, molten polymers with a very high viscosity of about 1000 Pa*s and a fundamental know-how of plant design. Every day, the company produces metal powder on demand, and runs its own R&D center as well as a cellulose spinning plant in Germany.

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

With respect to the atomization of liquids other than molten metal or polymer, the company expects to meet experts in their particular application fields as they only have know-how in the gas-dynamics of the laval nozzles but not in the applications, such as incineration, chemical reaction etc.

The partner should look for high performance atomization or a high efficiency mixing of a gas and a liquid or two gases.

Future partners will need to have specific measurement tools which the company does not have in their R & D center to measure droplets.



Technical cooperation agreement: 

The future partners (such as research institutes, R&D-focussed companies, etc.) would get the nozzles manufactured by the German SME and would do the atomization trials for further and mutual improvement and development of new atomization nozzles. The results would be shared according to a technical cooperation agreement.  The SME would not be able to pay for research work but would be able to support the partner with experience with these nozzles from other markets – see above – and would be able to manufacture new nozzles according to the results of the latest trials.



License Agreement:

In a second stage, as soon as a final nozzle design for a specific task has been identified by future R&D trials, the future partner (in particular companies with good knowledge of the individual application sectors, R&D-focussed companies) would start with the acquisition of nozzle selling projects and start the serial manufacturing and sales to the relevant industry. The German SME would receive a certain amount of money out of the selling volume according to a license agreement.

Dissemination Countries

Albania, Armenia, Argentina, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Belarus, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, Cameroon, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Egypt, Spain, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, India, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Moldova, Montenegro, Macedonia, The former Yugoslav Republic of, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Paraguay, Romania, Serbia, Russia, Sweden, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovakia, Tunisia, Turkey, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam