Plastics are essential for the modern world but are also non-sustainable products of the petrochemical industry that negatively impact our health, environment, and food chain. Natural biogenic plastics, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), are readily biodegradable, can be produced more sustainably, and offer an attractive alternative. The global demand for bioplastics is increasing with the 2019 market value of $8.3B expected to reach a compound annual growth rate of 16.1% from 2020-2027 (https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/bioplastics-industry). However, current PHA production is constrained by the underlying physiology of the microorganisms which produce them, meaning bioplastic production is currently limited to inefficient, batch fermentation processes that are difficult to scale.To address this problem, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a new system for PHA production wherein the PHA are generated continuously throughout microorganism growth lifecycles. The invention allows these sustainable bioplastics to be produced via precision continuous fermentation technology, a scalable and efficient approach.

For decades, researchers have been developing “cool roof” materials to cool buildings and save on energy usage from air conditioning. Cool roof materials are engineered to maximize infrared thermal emission, allowing heat to be effectively radiated into outer space and the building to cool down. Conventional cool roof materials emit heat even when it is cold outside, which exacerbates space heating costs and can outweigh energy-saving benefits. A temperature adaptive radiative coating (TARC) material was developed in 2021 that adapts its thermal emittance to ambient temperatures using metal-insulator transitions in vanadium oxide. TARC is projected to outperform existing roof materials in most climate areas, but the complicated structure required high-cost fabrication techniques such as photolithography, pulsed laser deposition, and XeF2 etching, which are not scalable.To address this problem, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a new scalable temperature-adaptive radiative coating (STARC). STARC has the same thermal emittance switching capability as TARC, allowing the thermal emittance to be switched between high- and low- emittance states at a preset temperature. However, STARC can be produced using high-throughput, roll-to-roll methods and low-cost materials. The STARC material also has an improved lifetime. As an added benefit, while cool roof materials are often engineered with uniformly low solar-absorption, the color and solar absorption of STARC can be tuned for aesthetic purposes or to meet local climate-specific needs.

In developed countries, buildings demand a large percentage of a region's energy-generating requirements. This has led to an urgent need for efficient buildings with reduced energy requirements. In office buildings, lighting takes up 20% to 45% of the total energy consumption. Furthermore, the adoption of smart lighting control strategies such as daylight harvesting is shown to reduce lighting energy use by 30% to 50%.For most closed-loop lighting control systems, the real-time data of the daylight level at areas of interest (e.g., the office workbench) are the most important inputs. Current state-of-the-art solutions use dense arrays of luxmeters (photosensors) to monitor the daylight environment inside buildings. The luxmeters are placed on either workbenches, or ceilings and walls near working areas. Digital cameras are used in controlled laboratory environments and occasionally in common buildings to evaluate glare resulting from excessive daylight. The disadvantage of these sensor-based approaches is that they're expensive to install and commission. Additionally, the sample area of these sensors is limited to either the area of the luxmeters or the view of the cameras. Consequently, many sensors are needed to measure the daylight in a large office space.To address this situation, researchers at UC Berkeley developed a portable cyber-physical system for real time, daylight evaluation in buildings, agriculture facilities, and solar farms (collectively referred to as "structures").

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed techniques for optical voltage sensing of power grids as well voltage sensing within a human or animal subject. The safe, accurate and economical measurement of time-varying voltages in electric power systems poses a significant challenge. Current systems for measuring power grid voltages typically involve instrument transformers. Although these systems are accurate and robust to environmental conditions, they are bulky, heavy, and expensive, thus limiting their use in microgrids and sensing applications. An additional drawback is that some designs explode when they fail. Optical methods for direct measurement of high voltages have gained attention in recent years, mainly due to the high available bandwidth, intrinsic electrical isolation, and the potential for low cost and remote monitoring. Stage of Research The inventors have developed a low-Q resonant optical cavity-based voltage sensor based on a piezoelectric AIN thin film that transduces a voltage applied across the piezo terminals into a change in the resonant frequency of the cavity. This sensor can be fabricated with high yield and low cost (<$1), which makes it uniquely well-suited to reduce the cost of grid voltage measurement.

The inventors have developed a highly scalable multiplexed approach to increase the density of graphene nanoribbon- (GNR) based transistors. The technology forms a single device/chip (scale to 16,000 to >1,000,000 parallel transistors) on a single integrated circuit for single molecule biomolecular sensing, electrical switching, magnetic switching, and logic operations. This work relates to the synthesis and the manufacture of molecular electronic devices, more particularly sensors, switches, and complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip-based integrated circuits.Bottom-up synthesized graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have emerged as one of the most promising materials for post-silicon integrated circuit architectures and have already demonstrated the ability to overcome many of the challenges encountered by devices based on carbon nanotubes or photolithographically patterned graphene. The new field of synthetic electronics borne out of GNRs electronic devices could enable the next generation of electronic circuits and sensors.  

The power demands on data centers are large and increasing rapidly. This is straining data center economic and environment impacts, and in turn driving improvements in data center power efficiencies. Data centers have been widely adopting 48 V intermediate bus architectures due to higher efficiency, good flexibility, and reduced cost. However, a major challenge in such systems is the conversion from the 48 V bus to the extreme low voltage and high current operating levels of server CPUs and GPUs.To address this challenge, UC Berkeley researchers developed a multi-phase hybrid power converter architecture. The Berkeley design uses hybrid converter topologies. A switched-capacitor network is smartly merged with a switched-inductor network, resulting in circuit component number reduction and soft-charging operation of the capacitors. Furthermore, the Berkeley architecture integrates a multi-phase control technique to achieve a higher conversion ratio of the switched-capacitor network, which can further improve the overall system efficiency without increasing the circuit size.  

The inventors have developed two new CasX gene-editing platforms (DpbCasXv2 and PlmCasXv2) through rationale structural engineering of the CasX protein and gRNA, which yield improved in vitro and in vivo behaviors. These platforms dramatically increase DNA cleavage activity and can be used as the basis for further improving CasX tools.The RNA-guided CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein CasX has been reported as a fundamentally distinct, RNA-guided platform compared to Cas9 and Cpf1. Structural studies revealed structural differences within the nucleotide-binding loops of CasX, with a compact protein size less than 1,000 amino acids, and guide RNA (gRNA) scaffold stem. These structural differences affect the active ternary complex assembly, leading to different in vivo and in vitro behaviors of these two enzymes.

The invention is a new rectifier/detector concept, simultaneously utilizing the Hall effect and spin-orbit torque. Both phenomena scales with the current density and improves inversely with the device cross-sectional area, providing the largest signals at the nanoscale. The invention injects RF current in a Hall material to generate a Hall voltage, and use the same RF current in a spin-orbit material to control a magnet, which then applies a magnetic field to the Hall material leading to a rectification of the Hall voltage. A magnet with low anisotropy energy is used to make it sensitive to low RF currents. The device and corresponding circuits in HSPICE use materials parameter for InAs as the Hall layer, Bi2Se3 as the spin-orbit (SO) layer, and a soft ferrite as the magnet, we calculate the DC voltage from a 200 nm thin device to be ~100 μV from a ~500 nW RF power. A series array of such devices that can improve the DC voltage to ~100 mV from the same RF power, while matching the receiver antenna impedance.

This technology combines air layer frictional drag reduction (ALDR) with super hydrophobic surfaces (SHS) to achieve frictional drag reduction of ALDR with significantly reduced gas flux. Thus, enabling increased net energy savings. The stable air layer is achieved with lesser gas flux when utilizing a SHS.Periodic air layers may replenish SHS, enabling drag reduction with reduced energy cost. Combinations of SHS and regular or other non-SHS surface may be used to control spreading of gas, thus facilitating formation of ALDR using discrete gas injection points better than previously achievable. Such surface variations could also be used to preferentially guide gas towards or away from propulsion, depending on desired outcome. By controlling ALDR regionally or globally on a surface, with or without SHS, this technology modifies flow around a hull. This mediates forces on partially or fully submerged objects, enabling control of flow patterns, resistance, steering, and/or dynamics.

Silicon photovoltaic (“Si-PV”) modules currently dominate the solar energy market. Increased progress into Si-PV efficiency enhancements combined with historically low module costs aim to decrease the overall Levelized Cost of Electricity (“LCOE”) to a point competitive with non-renewable energy sources. Despite recent LCOE reductions, Si-PV technology remains economically inferior to fossil fuels. Additionally, flat-plate Si solar modules generally require geographical locations with high direct normal incidence (“DNI”) sunlight conditions in order to maintain module performance. Both the strict DNI requirement and the high LCOE of Si-PV cells ultimately limit the dissemination of solar power into the global energy market. A solution for the capturing of diffuse sunlight includes the use of optical concentrators.  One class of optical concentrators includes luminescent solar concentrators (“LSCs”).  Luminescent solar concentrators have garnered interest due to their ability to utilize diffuse light and their potential for use in architectural applications such as large area power-generating windows. However, LSCs have not yet reached commercialization for photovoltaic power generation, largely due to their comparatively low power conversion efficiencies (“PCEs”) and lack of scalability.     Researchers at UC Berkeley and other educational institutions have developed luminescent solar concentrators that  can be designed to minimize photon thermalization losses and incomplete light trapping using various novel components and techniques.

There are an estimated 130 million wooden poles that support overhead power lines in the US.  Extreme weather, aging, storms or sabotage can all lead to potential damage of these poles and power lines, which can leave large areas without basic necessities.  Due to this risk, it’s anticipated that power utility companies will deploy sensors and corresponding energy harvesters to better respond to potential damage of this critical electricity grid infrastructure. To address this anticipated mass deployment of sensors and harvesters, researchers at UC Berkeley have developed technology improvements to harvesting of electrical energy from energized conductors carrying alternating currents, such as those on overhead and underground power lines (as well as power-supplying conductors in offices and dwellings).  These enhanced harvesters would improve the economics of deploying sensors across a national power grid.  The Berkeley harvesters can readily provide enough power to supply wireless communication devices, energy storage batteries and capacitors, as well as sensors such as accelerometers, particulate matter measuring devices, and atmospheric sensors.

Surface defects dominate the behavior of minority carriers in semiconductors and optoelectronic devices. Photoluminescence quantum yield (QY), which dictates efficiency of optoelectrics such as LEDs, lasers, and solar cells, is extremely low in materials with a large number of surface defects. Researchers at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonamide (TFSI) solution for passivation/repair of surface defects in 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC). This air-stable solution-based chemical treatment provides unmatched photoluminescence QY enhancement to values near 100% without changing the surface morphology. The treatment eliminates defect-mediated non-radiative recombination, which eliminates the low performance limit of TMDC and enhances its minority carrier lifetime. This novel development can address surface passivation in numerous semiconductors which will lead to highly efficient light emitting diodes, lasers and solar cells based on 2D materials.

As the most reducing and lightest metal, lithium is a desirable battery anode material due to its abilities to yield a high cell voltage and a high specific energy capacity. Lithium ion (Li-ion) battery technology is expected to grow to a $30B industry in the next 5 to 10 years. This growth is largely driven by the introduction of electric vehicles which reached one million plug-in electric vehicles globally in 2015. Problems with Li electrodes have been investigated and challenges remain, including dendrite growth, flammability of organic solvents, and decomposition of the anions at the electrode. To address these challenges, researchers at UC Berkeley are developing single-ion, solid polymer electrolytes as replacements for liquid electrolytes. The investigators have demonstrated a solid-state battery system which uses single-ion conduction and leverages three-dimensional connectivity of polymer networks to provide superior mechanical strength and flexibility which affects bulk conductivity.

Nearly all hydrocarbons are generated from petroleum or natural gas processing. Hydrocarbon mixtures are separated into component fractions at scale for the commercial production of fuels and chemical feedstocks. These large-scale systems use a lot of energy and require many sub-systems with expensive adsorbents or membrane materials like zeolites, polymers, metal oxides, and carbon. Since many of these hydrocarbon mixtures have molecules with similar structures, properties, and reactivities, many of the technical challenges and associated high costs remain. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) hold promise for efficient and complex separations based on their desirable surface areas, tunable pore geometries, and adjustable surface functionality. To help align MOFs with challenges in hydrocarbon separations, researchers at UC Berkeley have developed thermally robust and tunable MOF materials which are capable of separating mixtures of saturated, unsaturated, and aromatic hydrocarbons. The researchers have demonstrated the purification of a four component gas-phase mixture. 

Conventional power conversion cycles which turn fuel into heat and heat into power are constrained by basic thermodynamic considerations. The most modern technologies have been limited to 60% even with multiple cycles combined (i.e. Brayton and Rankine combined cycle). Recent demonstrations have shown relative efficiency gains of 30% in both spark-ignited and compression-ignited regimes. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are working to outdo these efforts by working on an ultra-high efficiency power cycle framework using argon as the working fluid. Early laboratory results suggest the argon engine could easily achieve 70% or greater thermal efficiency. Under such research the argon replaces nitrogen as the working fluid and is recycled in the closed-loop system.

There are many applications that require the storage of a high density of gas molecules. The driving range of vehicles powered by natural gas or hydrogen, for instance, is determined by the maximum density of gas that can be stored inside a fuel tank and delivered to the engine or fuel cell. In certain situations, it is desirable to lower the pressure or raise the temperature needed to store a given amount of gas through the use of an adsorbent. Developments in next-generation adsorbents, such as metal-organic frameworks and activated carbons, have shown certain weaknesses in terms of the amount of gas that can be delivered when an application has a minimum desorption pressure greater than zero and when a significant amount of heat is released during adsorption or cooling occurs during desorption. To help solve these problems, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a next generation of materials using novel porous metal-organic frameworks that demonstrate unprecedented deliverable gas capacities. These engineered adsorbents maximize the amount of gas delivered during each adsorption/desorption cycle. This shows promise in developing next generation gas storage materials for applications with a wide range of operating conditions.

In recent years there has been a greater interest in making more energy efficient automobiles.  A number of plug-in vehicles (PEVs) or hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are offered by nearly every automaker today.  Although these vehicles offer a cleaner and more energy efficient alternative to traditional petroleum-fueled vehicles, mainstream consumer acceptance of these technologies is stymied by considerations of their premium price, limited travel range, and extended charging times, all consequences of current battery technologies. To address these problems, UC Berkeley researchers have developed an electro-mechanical flywheel system to be incorporated into PEVs and HEVs which increases efficiency, extends battery life and extends travel range making this battery/flywheel system more cost effective and more appealing to the mainstream consumer.  The system combines the chemical energy storage in a battery with the electro-mechanical energy storage in a flywheel to provide the system with both high power capability and high energy density.   

The selective and efficient conversion of light alkanes into value-added chemicals remains a challenge for those in the petrochemical and chemical industries.  Currently, there is no go-to commercial process for the selective oxidative conversion of C1-C3 hydrocarbons into value-added chemical feedstocks, such as methanol and ethanol. Industrially, methanol is produced in an indirect and energy intensive process beginning with the steam reformation of natural gas into synthesis gas. After fermentation, ethanol is largely produced from the hydration of ethylene/ethene, which relies on the use of concentrated acids and elevates risk for human safety and environment. To overcome these challenges, researchers at UC Berkeley have devised novel materials and methods involving redox-active metals within porous metal-organic frameworks for driving improved catalytic oxidation of small hydrocarbons to their corresponding alcohols and aldehydes. This innovation could be of special importance to the boom of shale gas processing, which consists of largely methane, but also contains large amounts of ethane and other light alkane impurities.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have designed a reactor cavity, reactor vessel, and core barrel system that has desirable features for use with fluoride salt cooled high temperature reactors (FHRs). The FHRs offer two potential advantages: smaller equipment size, because of the higher volumetric heat capacity of the salts, and the absence of chemical exothermal reactions between the reactor, intermediate loop and power cycle coolants for increased safety. The FHR is a pool type reactor, with a reactor vessel design similar to that commonly used in pool-type sodium fast reactors (SFRs).  General design practice in SFRs is to have a separate guard vessel to maintain the coolant inventory in the primary system if the reactor vessel leaks or ruptures.  This invention uses a different design approach that eliminates the need for a guard vessel. The design also provides useful structures to hold intermediate and emergency cooling heat exchangers and other equipment needed for operation of the reactor.

With over 100 million tons produced annually, oxygen (O2) is among the most widely used commodity chemicals in the world -- and the demand for pure O2 could grow enormously due to its potential use in processes associated with the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-burning plants.   The separation of O2 from air is currently done on a large scale using an energy-intensive cyrogenic distillation process. Zeolites are also used for O2 / N2 separation, however this process is inherently inefficient as the materials used adsorb N2 over O2 with poor selectivity.   To address this situation, researchers at UC Berkeley have developed novel redox-active metal-organic frameworks for gas separation. In comparison to conventional materials, the Berkeley material displays incredible separation properties at temperatures that are much more favorable to those currently used in numerous gas separaton and storage applications.   

A major challenge facing petroleum refiners is the desulfurization of diesel where sulfur levels must be reduced to less than 10 ppm.  This is difficult because alkyl groups inhibit access to the sulfur atom.  Furthermore, it requires high hydrogenation under great pressures. This invention provides an alternative to hydrodesulfurization by the adsorption of thiophene derivatives on a solid adsorbent.  It is a method for predicting selective performance of an adsorbent from a list of metals or cations for use in removing contaminants as thiophene derivatives in a hydrocarbon feed.

  In the manufacture of very large scale integrated circuits, polycrystalline-silicon (poly-Si) films are typically formed directly by low- pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) at temperatures above 600C, using silane as the precursor gas. Use of such a high process temperature renders this approach unsuitable for formation of poly-Si films on low-cost glass and plastic substrates and on substrates with completed CMOS integrated circuits. Various other techniques have been attempted, with less than ideal results, toward crystallizing amorphous silicon films without subjecting the material to excessive temperatures for the given application. Accordingly, a need exists for a method of readily forming polycrystalline films without subjecting the substrate to high temperatures, or requiring the use of complex processing steps. Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a technology that enables the forming of polycrystalline semiconductor at low temperatures and without the use of complex processing steps. The technology allows for production of a continuous polycrystalline silicon film with excellent physical and electrical properties.  The result is a low-temperature, low-cost substrates such as glass and plastic, which is extremely important for the development and commercialization of solar cells, thin film transistors, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).  

Photosynthetic plants and algae assemble large chlorophyll antenna in order to maximize survival in natural environments (where solar light is often limited). However, this property of plants and algae is suboptimal to productivity in high-density farming under direct sunlight. The reason is that in cultivated settings (where solar intensity is often deliberately high),the chlorophyll antenna in the top few layers of biomass have a photo absorption rate that far exceeds their photosynthesis rate -- resulting in dissipation and loss of excess photons as heat or fluorescence. These losses are compounded by photo-inhibition at the top layers of the biomass, and strongly attenuated light at the bottom layers of the biomass. If fact, up to 80% of absorbed photons can be wasted thereby reducing solar conversion efficiencies and cellular productivity to unacceptably low levels. To address these problems, researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a novel genetic technique that produces plants and algae with smaller, truncated chlorophyll antenna. Plants and algae with this attribute decrease over-absorption and wasteful dissipation of light in the top layers of biomass and also decrease photo-inhibition at the surface while increasing transmittance of light deeper into the biomass. Experiments conducted by the Berkeley research team have confirmed that cultures with this smaller chlorophyll antenna result in greater photosynthetic productivity and enhanced solar conversion efficiency.