Catalysis: The Series

The overarching goal of the Desulfurization Blog (www.desulf.blogspot.com) is to offer tips and tricks on how to save time in your never ending quest to stay on top of developments in your field of interest.

In that time saving vein, the following list provides easy access to each of the posts we produced on Catalysis.  Not every post will interest you.  But when you see one that does, you can just click the link and go right to it.  That way you do not have to go through the tedious process of searching the blog to find it.  Not that you would do that … who has that kind of time?

CATALYSIS: THE SERIES (Part 1)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-series-part-1.html
As important as catalysis is to modern life, it is often difficult to describe catalysis to the layman in terms he/she can understand.
Bridging the understanding gap becomes critical when trying to convince managers, corporate sponsors, or venture capitalists of the significance of your particular approach.
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CATALYSIS: Technology Readiness Levels (Part 2 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-technology-readiness-levels.html
As a researcher, you want to stay on top of developments in your field.  In order to do so efficiently, it helps to focus on developments in your particular area of interest.  It also helps to focus on developments in a technology readiness level that corresponds with your activity.
NASA has developed a Technology Readiness Framework that may help.
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CATALYSIS: Putting Technology Readiness to Work (Part 3 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-putting-technology-readiness.html
As with so many things, the first step in identifying emerging technologies is to Google®. Using the topic of desulfurization as an example, here is TODAY’S TIP:
TIP: You could just enter desulfurization in the search box.  A better way is to enter the following search string …
desulfurization AND (new OR novel OR innovative)
You end up with the same total number of hits.  The difference is that the hits at the top of your list will be higher quality, saving you browsing time.
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CATALYSIS: Sort It Out (Part 4 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-sort-it-out-part-4-of.html
The next step, after your foray into Google® Land, is to sort through results and place each one into the appropriate Technology Readiness category.  So, here we go.
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CATALYSIS: Patents & Technology Readiness (Part 5 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-patents-technology-readiness.html
Any search for emerging technology should include a search of the USPTO database (http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/index.html).  The database is divided into two parts …
USPTO patents that have been granted
USPTO patents that have been applied for
Because the USPTO Patent Applications represent patents that have not yet been granted, they also represent newer inventions.
However, just because a patent has been granted does not mean that the USPTO Patents is not worth searching.  You should search them both.
Some interesting results are produced when you search the USPTO Patent Search for DESULFURIZATION in TITLE
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CATALYSIS: Parsing Patents (Part 6 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-parsing-patents-part-6-of.html
Placing the patents and patent applications you find into the proper Technology Readiness category requires the same judgement calls you make on published research results.  That means you need to scan the patent abstracts and descriptions for clues on how close to commercialization the invention is.
So, here we go again …
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CATALYSIS: Desulfurization Proposals (Part 7 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-desulfurization-proposals.html
Depending on your particular situation, you may be interested in technologies on one or the other end of the Technology Readiness scale, mentioned in a previous post.
In this post, we will describe a strategy for identifying technologies toward the beginning of the scale, i.e., paper concepts, bench scale developments, and, possibly, pilot scale efforts.
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CATALYSIS: Gumint Work (Part 8 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-gumint-work-part-8-of.html
Some of the best research on emerging concepts is performed by, or sponsored by, government agencies.
You can go directly to the various government sites and search for research reports and proposals.
TIP: Another way is to Google® the various agencies in conjunction with relevant search terms.  I have found that the search engines on many of the official sites are cumbersome at best.  Googling saves valuable time.
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CATALYSIS: Beyond Conceptual (Part 9 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-beyond-conceptual-part-9-of.html
Many, if not most, of the papers in the literature report results of experiments that are barely beyond the conceptual stage on the NASA Technology Readiness scale.
If you are interested in research that has moved up the scale, try Googling some of the following terms.
Bench scale
Lab scale
Pilot scale
Demonstration
Scale up
Commercialization
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CATALYSIS: Warming the Bench (Part 10 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/04/catalysis-warming-bench-part-10-of.html
Today, let’s take a closer look at the results of the desulfurization bench scale results featured in the previous post.
As you will recall, the Google® search string desulfurization AND bench resulted in 467,000 results
We will browse the results to see what we can find that fits into anything from 2 to 7 on the Technology Readiness scale.
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CATALYSIS: Lab Rats (Part 11 of the Catalysis Series)
View the complete post at:
http://desulf.blogspot.com/2017/05/catalysis-lab-rats-part-11-of-catalysis.html
Today, let’s take a closer look at the results of the desulfurization lab scale results featured in a previous post.
As you will recall, the Google® search string desulfurization AND "lab scale" resulted in 128,000 results
As far as I can tell, “bench scale” and “lab scale” seem to be interchangeable in re: the Technology Readiness scale.  However, since some people use the term “bench scale,” while others use the term “lab scale,” it is best to search on both terms.
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