Since 2010, the Cade Museum Foundation held an annual competition to encourage Florida’s burgeoning inventors and entrepreneurs. This year, two products that originated in Gator Engineering research laboratories have made their way to the Final Four:
Green Liquid & Gas Technologies
The Green Pyrolyzer Gasifier (GPG) is a self-fueled oven system that generates energy by burning waste. Instead of emitting pollution, it produces biochar, a natural soil amendment that keeps carbon in the ground and out of the atmosphere. Dr. Alex Green, 93, emeritus graduate research professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has devoted most of his academic life to the study of fuels. He invented the GPG and formed Green Liquid & Gas Technologies with his son, hoping to make a big impact on energy independency, soil fertility and air quality.
NanoPhotonica
If you’ve recently held a smartphone, you were probably looking at a liquid crystal display (LCD). Using ink-jet printing methods and a patented liquid material developed at the University of Florida, NanoPhotonica has developed a quantum dot LED display that they say uses less energy and offers better picture quality than any other display on the market.
The technology, known as S-QLED, reportedly costs 50 percent less to operate and 75 percent less to produce. NanoPhotonica has also used this material, which is teeming with semiconductor nanocrystals, to manufacture thin film solar panels. In addition to reducing production costs and improving efficiency, they have found that it tripled the life expectancy of the panels.
NanoPhotonica’s management team includes faculty members from our Department of Materials Science and Engineering, including Dr. Paul Holloway, Dr. Lei Qian, and Dr. Ying Zheng. Dr. Holloway is the chief scientist responsible for developing NanoPhotonica’s patented material.