Setting the agenda in research
Comment
EDDIE SEAL/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY
A natural-gas flare at a refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.
We commercialized a methane capture
technology in ten years — here’s how
Guoping Hu, Eric F. May & Kevin Gang Li
M
Lessons from launching a ethane accounts for 16−20% of ten years: from developing it in a chemistry
global greenhouse-gas emissions, laboratory (2011−18), to proving its effec-
spin-off company: invest and is more potent at trapping heat tiveness in a coal-mine gas plant (2018−21),
in collaborations and in the atmosphere than carbon to manufacturing and beginning to sell it
dioxide (see Nature 596, 461; 2021). (2019−21).
engineering, and protect
More than half of methane emissions come That sounds like a long time, but it’s actually
intellectual property to speed from human activities, including leaks from fast. In our field of industrial chemistry, it often
up tech development. refineries, coal mines and landfill sites. We takes up to 20 years to get a product out of the
developed a material that removes methane lab and on to the market. Most prototypes fail
from streams of mixed waste gases (see, for at the first hurdle — getting industry backing.
example, ref. 1). Patents last for only 20 years, making it a race
Commercializing our material took against time.
242 | Nature | Vol 604 | 14 April 2022
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The world needs new technologies urgently
to avert climate change. Unfortunately,
there’s little guidance to help academics on
the commercialization journey and through
unfamiliar territory in the corporate and
legal worlds, while juggling university career
requirements along the way.
To spur others on, we share here our lessons
for speeding up technology translation.
Beyond an exciting product, it needs time,
money, business management and collabora-
tion across many sectors. Clear identification
of the market position of the product, strategic
collaboration with key partners, and access
to excellent manufacturing and engineering
capabilities make a new technology more likely
to cross the finish line.
Identify the product
Start with the ‘5W’ questions: what is the
ROBERT BROOK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
product, who are the customers, what are
the competing technologies, what is the prod-
uct’s economic value and what are its social
and environmental impacts. The answers will
direct you to the right industries, sources of
finance and marketing messages. Address any
problems raised in parallel.
Our product is a new type of adsorbent
material (ionic liquidic zeolites; ILZs)1 that
captures methane efficiently. It gets around Excess methane gas is burnt off at a landfill site.
a problem that has challenged chemists for
decades — separating methane from nitro- Next, we needed to face the competition. of doing something new. Cost of production
gen in the air. The two gases have similar Methane treatment is a fast-moving field. might be high at the outset when there’s an
molecule sizes, boiling points and reactive There are many options for treating low- immature supply chain. Direct costs (labour,
characteristics2. grade methane mixtures. Each has pros and materials, storage, transport and utilities)
On discovery, it wasn’t obvious how our cons. Lean-burn gas-to-power generators and indirect expenses (sales, marketing,
material would be used. Serendipity played are portable and simple, but have low yields. financing, tax, depreciation and patenting)
a part. K.G.L. moved jobs in 2012 to study Catalytic and thermal oxidizers work well on must be factored in.
natural-gas processing (with E.F.M.) at the dilute streams of gases but waste heat energy. At each step, it’s important to listen to what
University of Western Australia in Perth. Activated carbons are cheap but struggle to customers, partners and other stakeholders
We worked on a project to reduce methane separate methane and nitrogen. Our ILZs are say. The product might not be what the market
emissions from the vent streams of liquefied more selective but we still had to maximize needs right now; the business model might not
natural gas plants. ILZ materials seemed a be profitable. In our case, we sold advanced
good fit. And the target customers became “Cost of production engineering solutions alongside the materi-
clear: liquefied natural gas refineries, coal-gas als as a package to add profit — similar to how
enrichment plants and landfill sites, as well as might be high at the outset printer manufacturers make extra money by
renewable-biogas production facilities. when there’s an immature selling ink cartridges.
We focused first on customers that would supply chain.” Environmental impacts must be considered,
reap the most benefits of trialling our technol- such as material toxicity, waste management
ogy for the least cost. Large liquefied natural and carbon footprints. Our materials can
gas plants were too complex. Chinese coal their performance — by controlling particle be used for 8−20 years, after which they are
mines fitted the bill. In 2014, natural gas was shape and size to maximize how much ILZ heated and recycled or buried. This disposal
cheap and abundant in the West but in great material could fit inside the industrial vessels cost is then weighed against the environmen-
demand in China. And China supplies most of used to capture the methane. tal benefits of using the material. One tonne
the raw materials for adsorbents. Researchers Pricing is challenging for any new technol- of ILZ can capture about 40 million tonnes
who commercialized porous catalyst materials ogy. Ultimately, a price is set by estimating of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases over its
called metal–organic frameworks3 also started the marginal value a technology can deliver lifetime.
by targeting small-scale research institutions to a customer, relative to conventional Answers to the ‘5W’ questions might change
rather than large chemical plants. options, offset by the risk to the customer during the journey, as the technology and
Nature | Vol 604 | 14 April 2022 | 243
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Comment
supply chain develop. Gather data to define than disclose sensitive information about its Global Innovation Linkages Program. Those
the answers more precisely. Keep an eye on manufacture. Later on, we were able to say links brought three organizations together
global shifts, in technology, economies and more by citing patents5. to establish a start-up company called Gas
policy. Capture Technologies.
Secure funding and partnerships Finally, find collaborators wherever con-
Protect intellectual property It takes millions of dollars to move a technol- ditions are most favourable. For example,
A patent confers a legal right to make, use and ogy such as ours through the three stages we benefited from working with partners in
sell a technology for a period of time, often of research and development: laboratory Australia for IP generation, a German manufac-
20 years (as, for example, in the United States, research, industrial demonstration and turer who supplied specialized raw materials,
China and Europe). It excludes others from commercial-plant trials. and gas companies in China for processing and
doing so for that time. Trade secrets are an The first step, research, is familiar. To commercial demonstration.
alternative to patents for protecting intellec- develop the material in the lab, we initially
tual property. That requires you to avoid publi- received grants totalling a few million dollars Engage engineers
cizing key manufacturing steps so that they are from the Australian Research Council (ARC), Good engineering is crucial. Working closely
hard for others to follow. In practice, a mixture Western Australia’s state government and with production engineers can speed things
of approaches could be used. We started off global energy companies. Cross-collaboration up. For example, working alongside the
relying on trade secrets but deployed multiple with E.F.M.’s group opened up lines of funding Chinese manufacturer, it took us two years
patents as we proceeded. for industrial transformation from the ARC. and many iterations to find a commercially
First, narrow down which aspect to patent. These enabled us to scale up the production viable recipe for our material (see go.nature.
It could be a material, its use, a device or a of our material to kilograms, build apparatus com/3j3tatb). Along the way, we developed
concept. Second, talk to an institutional and test the performances of adsorbents and a engineering cycle6 that allowed us to dou-
intellectual property (IP) officer and a patent cycles for methane capture. ble our methane-capture efficiency and cut
attorney early on. They will know, for exam- This stage is where most projects stall. capital costs. Using established facilities,
ple, whether a product has commercial value, Once the research funding was depleted, we engineers and supporting teams is also faster
whether it is practical to enforce protection, too almost wrapped up the work. Fortunately, and cheaper than starting from scratch.
and whether there are sufficient data to the promise of our material urged us on. The next step, commercial-plant trials,
support your claims. Accessing funds beyond research grants required us to find an organization that stood
We lodged our first provisional patent requires building partnerships with industry to gain from and that was willing to test the
application in Australia in 2015. That stage technology. After many site visits, workshops
requires only a solid proof-of-concept. “A patent is important and feasibility studies, one of the leading
Accurate wording is crucial. Start with broad coal-bed methane-gas companies agreed
claims, provide specifics to prove inventive-
for setting up a spin-off to support us to build our first commercial
ness and disclose as little as possible on company.” methane-recovery plant at the Qinshui Basin
specific techniques. in Shanxi province, China. It was a small plant
A patent is important for setting up a in one of the world’s largest regions of coal-bed
spin-off company. Albeit intangible, it is the and other specialist groups. These might range methane reserves. Our team spent five months
company’s initial asset and it attracts collab- from chemical, mechanical and electrical engi- on site to install, commission and test the plant.
orators and investors. The security offered by neers to business managers, economists, legal Success won sales orders from customers
our patent enabled us to disclose our recipe to consultants and accountants. It’s these inter- in North America and Europe, on the basis of
collaborators, which was crucial for scaling up connections that eventually allow efforts to information on our website and published
our product’s manufacture. snowball. Here are some tips. papers. We were able to use the Chinese part-
However, the patent process is lengthy and First, seek strategic partnerships as soon ner’s plant to manufacture materials at scale
expensive. It took us between four and seven as the product is identified. These might not and treat waste. Using others’ facilities reduced
years from applying for the international necessarily be with the big players. We had the time for upscaling by two to three years.
patent in Australia (2015), to the award of little luck when we approached large adsor-
the first full patents in national territories, in bent and gas-separation companies. But we Communicate effectively
the United States (2019), China and Australia did get attention when we reached out to Miscommunication is probably the biggest
(2021). We invested more than Aus$20, 000 small-to-medium enterprises, which were cause of commercialization delays.
(roughly US$15,000) to secure the US patent more willing to take risks. Misunderstandings waste time and money
alone and each patent has an annual fee, as Second, forge international links. These and cause tensions and delays. Good
well as the continuing costs for a patent attor- open up funding channels, areas of expertise communication builds trust. Broad teams
ney. That’s a lot of money for a spin-off. We and markets. Conferences and exhibitions are (accountants, engineers, scientists and
targeted the countries most likely to provide good places to connect. For example, during sales people) are necessary to be successful
big markets. And we lodged more patents as a meeting on methane abatement from coal but are not all on the same page. A balance
the product developed and as other candi- beds, we initiated a collaboration with a Chinese needs to be found to engage the whole team,
dates emerged. gas-separation company. We agreed to conduct to keep everyone in harmony and to split up
That’s a long time for any researcher to tests while the terms and conditions were being specialized work to sub-groups for efficiency.
spend working on a project in the shadows. negotiated. We protected our IP through a Language and cultural barriers can be an issue
Most academics, including us, feel conflicted non-disclosure agreement and by keeping trade in international collaborations, and appoint-
about limiting access to their work. Openness secrets while building mutual trust. Such care- ing personnel able to work across different
is key for scientific progress. And research- ful steps avoid future business disputes. cultural backgrounds was a crucial step.
ers need publications to get jobs, grants and Third, access grants for boosting collabo- Communications across disciplines was
promotions. For us, that meant walking a rations. In 2017, we were fortunate to receive also key. For example, before construct-
narrow line. We chose to publish journal arti- Aus$2 million (in direct and in-kind sup- ing a demonstration plant, we ran through
cles on advanced uses of our material4, rather port) through the Australian government’s every piece of equipment in our piping and
244 | Nature | Vol 604 | 14 April 2022
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YONGQIANG WANG
The methane-capture plant at Qinshui Basin in Shanxi, China, uses the technology developed by Guoping Hu, Eric May and Kevin Gang Li.
instrumentation diagram at least 20 times international process. journey, with patience, perseverance and a
with the design, mechanical and electrical We call on IP authorities to speed up the proactive approach.
engineers involved. And we continued to speak patent examination process, communicate
to them through the entire process. When the more effectively with other jurisdictions, and
local rainy season interrupted progress, they avoid duplicating patent searches and queries. The authors
helped us to get back on course swiftly, for Government and institutional support
example by improving the instrumentation’s for commercialization is crucial. Long-term Guoping Hu is a research associate at
water resistance. the University of Western Australia, Perth,
What next
“Government and Australia, and an honorary fellow at the
University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
More hard work lies ahead — increasing pro-
institutional support Eric F. May is a professor at the University of
ductivity, securing capital and building a for commercialization Western Australia. Kevin Gang Li is a senior
robust supply chain. We need to diversify is crucial.” lecturer at the University of Melbourne.
products and revenue streams and hire tal- e-mails: [email protected]; eric.may@
ented people, who can work full time. For us, uwa.edu.au; [email protected]
it’s been a second job alongside academia. support for innovation hubs or parks needs to
1. Li, G., May, E. F., Webley, P. A., Huang, S. H. & Chan, K. I.
Had we known what lay ahead, we might have be sustained. And funding and training should Method for gas separation. US Patent US20170348670A1
reached commercial scale even faster by work- be more systematic and widely available. Train- (2015).
ing full time. ing in IP protection and commercialization 2. Rufford, T. E. et al. J. Pet. Sci. Eng. 94–95, 123–154 (2012).
3. Peters, A. W., Howarth, A. J. & Farha, O. K. Nature 551,
If we had the same opportunity again, we’d should be readily available to researchers, 433–434 (2017).
establish our spin-off sooner, engage with from tutors with experiences in the business 4. May, E. F. et al. Sep. Purif. Technol. 177, 161–175 (2017).
industry more frequently, get more feed- world and entrepreneurs who are involved 5. Hu, G. et al. Chem. Eng. J. 427, 130810 (2022).
6. Hu, G., Manning, M., Li, G., Xiao, Y. & Webley, P. A.
back at industry sessions in conferences or in commercialization themselves. Directors’ A method for increasing concentration of easily adsorbed
exhibitions and put our technology into a courses, and training in governance and busi- gas by pressure swing adsorption. China patent
commercial environment earlier. We might ness would also help. CN110354637B (2021; in Chinese).
have applied for patents separately in differ- Lastly, we encourage lab researchers who The authors declare competing interests; see go.nature.
ent countries rather than go through the slow are feeling entrepreneurial to embrace the com/3xauaIg for details.
Nature | Vol 604 | 14 April 2022 | 245
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