The additional cost incurred using conventional processes to reduce the magnesium content in high Mg/Li ratio brine lakes restricts lithium extraction to low Mg/Li ratio brine lakes, and results in the underutilization of existing lithium resources. 360ip’s partner has developed a novel, integrated process that solves this problem. This process has been successfully applied to brine solution from a brine lake with a Mg/Li ratio of 21 to produce a processed solution with a Mg/Li ratio of 0.41. The key advantages associated with this technology are as follows:

• Crystallization process allows easy removal of crystallized magnesium with filtration and washing process.
• Utilization of a spray-drying process allows a significant amount of the magnesium chloride to be hydrolyzed at a lower temperature than normal.
• Low cost and high magnesium removal efficiency.

The impact of oil degradation and contamination on lubrication equates to billions of dollars per year in lost productivity, maintenance and replacement costs. From power plants, to steel mills to aircraft engines, this issue spans the industries that drive our economy.

360ip’s partner has developed an oil sensor that provides for a consistent, high-quality, real-time, cost-effective oil condition sensor that measures and reports chemical degradation, total contamination and water content in oil, as well as oil temperature, all simultaneously in a single unit.

Present methods of lithium extraction from brine lakes all have significant drawbacks, such as poor lithium recovery rate and high cost due to large energy consumption. 360ip’s partner has developed a novel, integrated hydrometallurgical process that is able to avoid these drawbacks. The key advantages associated with this technology are as follows:

• The solid-phase reaction process produces crystals that are easy to filter, enabling a high lithium recovery rate.
• Low-cost process which only requires sodium carbonate as an external raw material.
• This closed-loop system enables low lithium-extraction cost and reduced pollution.
• Compared to conventional technology, the number of steps involved in concentrating lithium in brine is reduced, which enables low energy consumption and cost.

360ip’s partner has developed a superior antibacterial additive, based on rare earth-doped T-ZnOw, that combines the antibacterial performance of silver-based products with the low cost of T-ZnOw-based technology. Polymers containing the product have shown excellent antibacterial properties exceeding one year. The partner’s compound provides the following advantages:

• Less costly and less toxic alternative to silver-based materials.
• No discoloration of light-colored resins, unlike silver, which can be easily converted to black silver oxide and cause discoloration.
• Can perform antibiosis without UV light catalysis, unlike conventional T-ZnO materials.
• No secondary pollution, unlike organic antibacterial agents.

360ip’s Partner has developed a novel process for manufacturing carbon paper with a lower cost and better performance compared to conventional carbon paper. The carbon paper produced according to this technology provides advantages of low specific resistance, high strength and uniform porosity.

The 360ip Partner’s solution addresses the limitations of current carbon paper through the following:

• Specific resistance: As low as 2.7mΩcm
• Air permeability at room temperature of more than 2036 to 2853 ml.mm/(cm2·hr·mmAq)
• Porosity of 75-78%
• Bending strength of more than 45MPa
• Ability to accommodate roll-to-roll processing
• Energy density comparable to that of the competitor’s under identical conditions

Compared to existing commercially available fuel cell carbon papers, the partner’s technology can provide the following advantages:

• Improved elasticity and lower brittleness
• Improved electrical conductivity
• Improved strength to help in mass production
• Lower cost

With the price of copper realizing substantial increases over the past few years, the economic advantage of recovering copper from cupric chloride etchant (PCB waste liquid) has correspondingly increased. Conventional cupric chloride copper recovery systems have various short comings such as high operational cost, unwanted by-products and low recovery.

The technology developed by 360ip’s Partner provides for an improved solvent extraction method involving novel multi-stage extraction process.

Compared to conventional recovery technologies, 360ip Partner’s technology provides the following advantages:

• High purity (over 99.99%) of recovered copper
• High copper recovery rate (over 95%)
• Better crystalline structure of the recovered metal, resulting in improved electrical conductivity
• Extraction realized under high copper concentration
• Low operational cost

There is a strong demand for technologies that can provide a cost-effective solution for removal of ammonia nitrogen from wastewater.  However, current solutions are not able to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of ammonia nitrogen content in wastewater in a cost-effective manner.

The solution provided by intellectual property from two of 360ip’s Partners employs a proprietary technique to produce an ion-exchange resin with increased ammonia nitrogen adsorption capacity. The ion-exchange resin can be regenerated easily to be reused multiple times.

Compared to existing methods, the invention has the following advantages:

• High adsorption capacity and ammonia nitrogen selectivity
• Convenient regeneration of the adsorbent material
• Concentration of ammonia in the wastewater can be easily controlled
• Environmentally friendly since no sludge is produced

Conventional wastewater treatment technologies are not able to provide low-cost and effective removal of heavy metals from wastewater.  Adsorption processes using agricultural byproducts can potentially provide a low- cost solution, but the adsorption capacity needs to be improved.

The 360ip Partner’s invention relates to the production and use of esterified spent grain (ESG) as an adsorption material for the removal of heavy metals in wastewater.  Spent grain is a common byproduct in the beer industry, and is usually not fully usable as animal feed, potentially creating a costly disposal problem.

The novel process of creating the ESG involves the use of citric acid as esterifying agent, NaH2PO-2•H2O as catalyst and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as reaction medium to create an ESG with high adsorption capacity for heavy metal ions.  The use of DMF also serves as a swelling agent that can enhance the reaction activity and shorten the process time.

The key advantages associated with this technology are as follows:

• Low-cost process using easily available spent grain material
• Short processing time for production of the ESG
• High adsorption capacity, superior to ion-exchange resin
• ESG can be desorbed and reused at least three times

360ip Partner’s invention is a novel process for vulcanizing heavy metal waste and recovering valuable metals from the heavy-metal waste.  The method adopts the hydrothermal vulcanization mode by which the vulcanization rate of the heavy metals increases to as high as 90% and produces little secondary pollution.

The technology involves mechanical activation treatment, hydrothermal vulcanization and sulfur ore floatation.

The technology has the following benefits:

• Cost-effective process with the use of low-cost vulcanizer materials.
• Generated sulfide has small size and high degree of crystallization, which enables a high-yield floatation recovery process.
• Short vulcanization time and high vulcanization rate of heavy metals.
• Low waste water pollution.

The technology relates to a lubricant additive composed of nanometric tungsten disulphide (WS2) powder, nanometric molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) powder, dispersant, antioxidant and metal deactivator. The most  distinctive feature of the product is the use of WS2 nanoparticles, considered potentially to be the best lubricating nanomaterial in the industry.
The nanoparticles, averaging 100nm-200nm in size, are created by a proprietary process that allows
them to be evenly dispersed in the base oil. The nanoparticles form a protective layer on metal surfaces which reduces abrasion to friction-prone surfaces.Mini-Traction-Machine (MTM) tests also show that lubricants containing the WS2 nanoparticles provides significant improvement in lubrication performance.