Jerry Spivey Receives LSU Lift2 Award

We are happy to announce that Dr. Jerry Spivey received an LSU Lift2 award for his project entitled "Catalytic conversion of methane to higher value hydrocarbons and hydrogen using superacids." He received $35,000 "to demonstrate the conversion of methane into hydrocarbons and high-value hydrogen, using solid superacid catalysts. There is a significant opportunity for these materials. The 'shale revolution' has brought the price of natural gas to historically low levels, and virtually all projections claim that it will remain low. This requires new catalysts. Superacids are one example. These materials allow methane to be converted directly without intermediate steps, greatly reducing capital costs."

The LSU LIFT2 Fund was created by the LSU Board of Supervisors in January of 2014 to help “Leverage Innovation for Technology Transfer” across all the campuses of the LSU system. By permanently securing a portion of licensing income for the LSU LIFT2 Fund, LSU has ensured continual reinvestment in new innovation opportunities and affirmed its commitment to advancing discoveries for public benefit. Moving concepts closer to commercialization is the fundamental purpose of the LSU LIFT2 Fund. A primary objective of technology transfer at LSU, like most other research universities nationwide, is the transition of innovations from the academy to the marketplace for public use and benefit. Many discoveries, however, require significant additional development to prove sufficient technical feasibility to attract commercial partners. Funding for this type of research is difficult to obtain from either government or private sources, leaving many promising innovations languishing in a funding gap often referred to as “the valley of death.” The LIFT2 Fund is specifically designed to increase the number of LSU innovations licensed to industry partners.