Beyond University Research – Development Steps to Commercialization

Beyond University Research – Development Steps to Commercialization

                                                Bipin V. Vora

                                      Consultant & Advisor to R&D

                         UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company, Des Plaines, IL

For presentation at AIChE Meeting March 13-17, 2011, Chicago, Il USA

Abstract:

There is lot of good research work is being done at many universities, but only few gets to commercial realities. University researchers, academics often wonder why industry executives or entrepreneurs or venture capitalists are running to them to sign off to the next stage. The barrier is very high, often not visualized or understood. This presentation out lines all necessary steps one must go through from research to development, scale-up and commercialization.

A project from research commercialization has to pass through not one but many hurdles. One of the first is to pass techno-economic analysis. The investment needed for further development and scale-up of the technology and the duration of the time it would take are if not always, often significantly under estimated at the research stage.  The author will discuss this and other criteria in more detail with few examples.