Princeton University       Office of Technology Licensing and Intellectual Property

                                                            Fourth Floor, New South Building

                                                            Post Office Box 36 PRIVATE 

                                                            Princeton, New Jersey 08544-0036

                                                            Phone: (609) 258-6762

                                                           FAX: (609) 258-1159

 

EXTRACTION OF ARGON TRACES FROM AN UNDERGROUND STREAM OF GAS

 

            Researchers at Princeton and several collaborating Universities have developed a new process to extract argon from underground gas streams.  The Universities are seeking an industrial partner to commercialize this technology.

 

The process allows the cost efficient production of argon that does not contain Argon39 (depleted argon). This argon can be used in sensitive neutrino and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) dark matter detectors, significantly improving their sensitivity.  The process is based on vacuum swing adsorbtion and uses commercially available equipment that does not require any exotic materials. 

 

The process can be easily adapted to a variety of natural gas streams and it is anticipated that the process is scalable to plants capable of extracting several hundred kilograms of argon per day.  The ready and economical availability of depleted argon  creates the possibility of construction of large scale WIMP dark matter detectors and detectors of reactor neutrinos for non-proliferation efforts.

 

            Patent protection is pending.

 

            For more information please contact:

 

                        William H. Gowen

                        Office of Technology Licensing and Intellectual Property

                        Princeton University

                        4 New South Building

                        Princeton, NJ 08544-0036

                        (609) 258-6762

                        (609) 258-1159 fax

                        wgowen@princeton.edu