North American Catalysis Society ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM: CATALYSIS & BIOCATALYSIS and MEMBRANE/SEPARATIONS PROGRAMS June 1, 1999, Boston, MA

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is a unique partnership between government and private industry to accelerate the development of high-risk technologies that promise significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits for the economy. The FY1998 program awards - 79 new projects involving more than 150 companies and 11 universities - demonstrate ATP sponsorship of emerging technologies, which cross disciplines and lead to broad technology payoffs for the nation.

Single applicants to the ATP can receive up to $2 million over three years. There is no statutory limit to the amount of money which joint venture (JV) applicants may receive; such projects can last up to five years. Governmental, university and other non-profit research institutions may participate in ATP projects. Between 1990 and 1998, ATP provided funding for high-risk, industrial R&D projects to the tune of $1.4 billion.

Since 1991, ATP has run numerous general competitions, two focused competitions in catalysis and biocatalysis, and one focused competition in membrane technologies leading to 18 supported projects in catalysis/biocatalysis and 16 supported projects in membrane/separations technologies. The 34 projects from these different competitions represent $203 million in total funding, of which half is provided by companies. These target diverse applications, including:

• Selective oxidation
• Facilitated transport process for low cost olefin-paraffin separations
• Gasoline alkylation
• Biocatalytic desulfurization of crude oil
• On-site production of O₂ and CO₂ with environmental benefits
• H₂ purification for hybrid reactors and for on board reforming for fuel cells
• Novel, functionalized polymers; elastomeric polymers
• Computational chemistry for the development of new catalysts
• Genetic engineering, gene shuffling and phage display technologies for the development of new or improved biocatalysts and microbial products
• Isolation, purification of, virus removal from new biotech specialty products

The ATP is conducting one competition in 1999, open to proposals from any area of technology. A sum of $66 million has been set aside for first-year funding of new awards. Each proposal is peer-reviewed by one of five broad technology boards. Pre-proposals (optional) are encouraged at any time. The ATP continues to develop project portfolios around catalysis and membrane/separations projects, notably in the area of combinatorial discovery of catalysts and advanced materials.

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Date created: May 1999
Last updated: April 12, 2005