License Holders of New De-Icing Technologies Gather to Speak

    HANOVER, N.H., March 14 On Thursday, March 8, the three
companies with licenses to new de-icing technologies developed at Dartmouth's
Thayer School of Engineering convened at the School to present current
findings and plans for commercialization.

    The companies presenting were BFGoodrich, with a license for aerospace and
marine applications, Torvec, Inc., which will
develop the technology for land-based vehicle applications, and The Quantum
Group, Inc., which plans to commercialize the
ground-surface applications. The new technologies, developed by Dartmouth
Engineering Professor Victor Petrenko, use low-voltage electricity to remove
ice, prevent it from forming, or either increase or decrease ice-surface
friction. Ice can be made simply to fall off an airplane wing or "evaporate"
quickly from a road surface, and the day may come when car tires get the same
traction on ice that they would have on dry pavement.

    Alla Kan, Director of Dartmouth's Technology Transfer Office, welcomed the
gathering and described the process of transferring technology from academia
to the private sector, which resulted in the three licenses to the new
de-icing technology.

    Dr. Stan Prybyla, a Senior R&D Associate from BFGoodrich Aerospace,
commented at the start of the company presentations: "In our preliminary
testing of Professor Petrenko's technology, we were able to achieve zero ice
adhesion. The ice literally fell off the test component." Current airplane
de-icing methods employ decades-old technology. "We are now looking to develop
a novel low-power de-icing system that is robust to the operating environment
and readily manufacturable. The program to develop the Dartmouth technology is
moving forward very nicely. We have demonstrated our proof of concept, and we
plan to build and test a sub-scale prototype by the end of 2001."

    BFGoodrich acquired its license and exclusive rights to Petrenko's
de-icing technology in January, 2000. Headquartered in Charlotte, North
Carolina, its aerospace segment is one of the world's leading suppliers of
components, systems, and services to the aerospace industry.

    Dr. Herbert H. Dobbs, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Torvec, a
Rochester, New York-based developer of advanced automotive technologies, then
presented his company's strategies for commercializing this revolutionary
technology. (In November, 2000, the Dartmouth Trustees granted a worldwide
exclusive license to Ice Surface Development, Inc. (ISDI), a subsidiary of
UTEK Corporation , for Petrenko's ice adhesion modification
system for land-based vehicle applications. ISDI was subsequently acquired by
Torvec.

    During the meeting, Dobbs commented, "There's nothing like a 60-ton tank
slithering around on the ice to make you think Professor Petrenko's technology
is a good idea!" In addition to a non-thermal windshield de-icer, which would
prevent ice from even forming, Torvec plans to further develop Petrenko's
"Electrostatic IceBraker" traction system which works by inducing an electric
field that significantly increases the friction between tires and ice. "This
is a new direction for Torvec," continued Dobbs, "Up to this point we've used
only our own technology. But we think this has enormous potential. Everything
is pointing in a very positive direction and the tire application is the first
direction to go. Industry interest is very high, and we're ready to work on a
prototype with a company and are working with Professor Petrenko on a business
plan."

    The conductive rubber needed for the IceBraker system is already
commercially available and relatively cheap. The tire system has a projected
cost of approximately $5-10 per car, and may someday be available as an
optional feature like a sunroof or a CD player. The system could also be used
for shoes requiring only a simple ice sensor and a small battery.

    John Pope, Vice-President of Finance for The Quantum Group, Inc.,
concluded the company presentation portion of the meeting. In February of this
year, the Dartmouth Trustees granted a worldwide exclusive license for the
ground surface applications of Petrenko's de-icer to Technology Development,
Inc. (TDI), another subsidiary of UTEK. TDI was subsequently sold by UTEK to
The Quantum Group, which, based in California, is striving to establish itself
as a leader in the development of environmental technologies and crumb-rubber
modified asphalt technologies. 

    "I have a vision of an overhead picture of a major international airport
in the middle of winter, and all around the airport is white, except for the
runway which is perfectly black," said Pope. The Quantum Group plans to
commercialize the technology for use in airport runways, taxiways, and
tarmacs; motor vehicle roadways, bridges, and tunnels; pedestrian walkways;
sports facilities and playgrounds; and for indoor and outdoor floors and
ground covering systems. For these ground surface applications, low-voltage
electricity is distributed either through a metal grid embedded in the surface
or by using electrically-conductive paint. Pope concluded by saying, "Although
only entering the third week of developing this technology, we are excited
about beginning the laboratory portion of our work. We will be working very
closely with Professor Petrenko in turning lab research into real-world
applications."

    "I have spent the last twenty years gaining a basic understanding of
ice-surface physics and engineering," said Petrenko, "and it's taken me seven
years to apply that basic knowledge and begin to develop the technologies
needed to solve the problems of ice adhesion."

    Petrenko has been interested in the electrical properties of ice ever
since the early 1980s when, during over a decade's work as a physicist at the
Institute of Solid State Physics in Chernogolovka, Soviet Union, he went on
sabbatical leave at the University of Birmingham. "I visited their ice physics
lab and was surprised to find that ice itself was a protonic semiconductor,
that is, one of the special class in which the charges are conducted by moving
protons, not electrons," commented Petrenko. Then, at an ice conference in
Grenoble, Petrenko met Professor Erland Schulson, Director of Thayer School's
Ice Research Lab, now the largest university ice lab in the country. The
meeting resulted in some joint research projects, followed by an invitation to
stay on at Dartmouth's Thayer School as a research professor in engineering.

    Ice's notorious stickiness comes from its charged surface, which induces
an opposite charge on the surface to which it adheres. The natural attraction
between the opposite charges is what makes ice so hard to remove. One of
Petrenko's inventions involves sending an electric current across the
ice-material interface. In the case of de-icing airplanes, electrodes embedded
in a coating applied directly to aircraft surfaces would break down ice as it
forms through the process of electrolysis, transforming ice directly into
hydrogen and oxygen gases. If any ice buildup does occur -- which can happen
if a large amount of moisture is hitting the plane -- bubbles forming at the
ice-metal interface generate pressure and literally push the ice off the
surface. This same principle can work for ships, cars and trucks, windshields,
offshore structures, roads and bridges, ski lifts, roofs, and the inside of a
freezer.

    Last year, Petrenko's airplane de-icer was the winner of the 2000 Discover
Award for Technological Innovation for the aerospace category.

    Other companies attending the meeting were Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company,
Gardian Automotive Industry, Canadian Electricity Association, NASA, The FAA,
and many scientists from Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
(CRREL), as well as New York Power Authority which is supporting Petrenko's
development of a prototype de-icer for power lines. "Power lines produce their
own electric field," says Petrenko, "which can be adjusted to produce enough
heat for a de-icing effect." This is good news, considering that the ice storm
of 1998 in New England alone cost over $5 billion, mostly from damage to power
lines.

    Overall, ice takes a major toll on society -- airplanes downed, grounded,
or rerouted, car accidents on icy roads and bridges, power outages, ships
capsized -- so much so that it's difficult to quantify. "It's all very
exciting, and is keeping me very busy!" says Petrenko. "The Army Research
Office (ARO) was the first to recognize that an investment in basic research
was the place to start to solve this problem. Soon after, the National Science
Foundation added its support -- and that approach has worked very well!"

    The meeting was convened by Dr. Russell Harmon, Engineering Sciences
Directorate of ARO's Terrestrial Sciences Program.