Richard Noble bridges the gap between research and industry
Celebrated professor and prolific inventor Richard Noble reflects on decades of teaching and discovery and embarks on a new path to commercialization of a game-changing technology.
Growing up the eldest of seven children, in a family of modest means, Richard Noble learned how to work together with his siblings and how to be independent and persistent—skills he’s relied on throughout his life. “To succeed, you have to be willing to persevere; you don’t give up,” said Noble, research professor of chemistry ( Boulder Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences).
Several decades later, what ‘sticking with it’ looks like for Noble is nearly 50 years teaching, close to 90 patents, hundreds of publications, millions of dollars in research funding, dozens of technologies licensed—and too many honors and awards to catalog including Boulder Inventor of the Year (2008), Dean’s Performance Award for Research (2013), Institution of Chemical Engineers Innovator of the Year (2013) and North American Membrane Society Fellow (2018).
Today, Noble is an internationally recognized leader in using novel membrane and thin-film materials. For decades, his lab has been experimenting with how ionic liquids (liquid salts), liquid crystals and electric and light energy can selectively separate components–in mixtures, membranes or even micro-scale devices. Harnessing these materials may have a broad range of potential applications, including nano-filtration (specifically treating ‘spent’ water from fracking), ‘lab on a chip’ devices and gas separation.
The CO2Dz
How to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from other mixed gases, in particular, has been on Noble’s mind for a very long time. Extracting CO2from the air is challenging because the gas is highly diffuse, spreading rapidly and mingling readily with other gases. Currently, sequestering CO2traditionally involves chemical absorption, a process in which gases are sent through liquid amines (derivatives of ammonia), which trap the gas. In addition to the toxic and corrosive nature of amines, this separation technique is generally costly and energy-intensive.
Despite the many hurdles to sequesteringCO2, it’s important to Noble for a couple of reasons.SeparatingCO2from natural gas increases its heating value as well as the safety and efficiency of transporting it by preventing corrosion in pipelines (due to the acidity ofCO2)and issues during natural gas liquefaction in whichCO2may crystallize. RemovingCO2 from natural gas before it’s burned can also lower its overall emissions.
Successfully separating and storing CO2could also play a key role in mitigating climate change. CO2is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that is supercharging climate change. According to the NOAA Global Monitoring Lab, carbon dioxide alone is responsible for about two-thirds of the total heating influence of all human-produced GHGs. TrappingCO2before it’s emitted from the flues of large industrial plants—like cement and coal-burning power plants—could make a major dent in worldwide CO2DzԲ.
The ‘just right’ path to commercialization
Over his career, when Noble has considered what he wants the overall impact of his many innovations to be, he’s clear: “I’m an engineer, I want to know at the end of the day that somebody’s going to value what I do, that it’s useful. I’m always moving toward application,” he said. To that end, Boulder has licensed intellectual property for some of his inventions to companies large and small, including several of his membrane technologies. Over the years, he’s also considered spinning off a company to build his own business around some of his inventions.
For Noble, who is also a former director of the NSF Membrane Applied Science and Technology (MAST) Center, there were advantages and disadvantages to each approach. Licensing in the traditional way meant researcher and customer came together generally through sponsorship or an applied research project—great for the time-crunched professor but lacking some of the impact Noble wanted. At the other extreme was launching a startup, which meant finding capital, customers, the right team and the time to cultivate each—a combination requiring business prowess that, he said, was not his strength. “A long time ago, I realized that I don’t have good business sense,” said Noble, “But I wanted to find the people that knew the business so that they could take what I made and know how to do that part of it successfully.”
Recently, Noble chose a different path that represents a shift in licensing at the university, according to Marta Zgagacz, senior director at Venture Partners at Boulder.
Early this year, several of Noble’s patents based on ionic liquid membrane technologies used for carbon capture and separation were optioned by startup incubator High Tech XL, which builds fast-growing, deep-tech companies focused on changing the world. Membranes are an attractive tech for removing CO2from mixed gases because, structured and charged in the way Noble has devised, they are more productive and have a longer lifespan with a smaller cost and footprint than traditional techniques. Noble plans to join the new startup as a technical advisor.
Noble arrived at that ‘just right’ space between research and development thanks to new opportunities through Venture Partners—and his own enthusiasm. At Zgagacz's urging in 2022, Noble teamed up with the Venture Partners licensing team to join the Starting Blocks Customer Discovery Workshop,offered as part of the National Science Foundation I-Corps™ Hub: West Region.
But what is "commercialization?"
The path to commercialization—also known as "research translation" or "tech transfer"—can be challenging, so Venture Partners unitesindustry partners, entrepreneurs and investors to helpresearchers, inventors and creators at the University of Colorado bring their groundbreaking discoveries into the marketplace.
Over those few weeks, Noble gained a deeper understanding of the commercialization process and got to test his ideas with potential customers. “This evolution of Venture Partners has allowed academic people like myself to do the ‘R’ of R&D, and to find others who can do the ‘D’ whereas when I first started [at ], that was a black hole,” said Noble.
Zgagacz describes this new route as a new path for commercialization, one that combines elements of partnership with existing companies and launching a startup without researchers having to drive company formation. “Some inventors or researchers might not be interested in starting a company or in being in partnership with an existing company, so they might be discouraged from talking to us,” she said. “But not everyone has to jump on that entrepreneurship wagon. There’s a third way of doing this, even if you don’t think your technology is ready for that.”
Zgagacz emphasized that there are many promising technologies being developed at Boulder, with inventors at all stages of their careers, and she wants them, like Noble, to find a home with Venture Partners. “Hopefully, other inventors, other researchers, other PIs will see his story, and it will resonate with them as a potential path,” she said.
In mid-2024, Noble took part in Venture Partners’ Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, which matches entrepreneurs with breakthrough innovations.“I think it’s really good to educate faculty on what it really takes,” said Noble. “There’s a point where you have to let go and realize that different expertise is needed.”While Noble’s tech didn’t match during that Embark round, High Tech XL started showing interest around the same time and Noble and Venture Partners were ready. After a series of conversations, it was clear that the startup lab and Noble made a great match.
The importance of curiosity and community
A key mindset to experimentation that has served Noble well throughout his lengthy career—and that he recommends to his students—is a willingness to try anything.“I usually start with a crazy idea,” he said, “I tell them, ‘I don’t know if it’ll work or how it’ll work, but it’ll be new and different, so let’s just try it and see what happens.” As a scientist, you may not get the result you’re looking for immediately, but success by increments is still success. “Students have to trust and believe that doing this is going to lead to some positive outcomes, and it does,” said Noble. “Sometimes things went one way or the other way, but there’s a culmination and they see the evolution of knowledge and realize that this was something worth doing.”
That thinking is how Noble went from trying many different approaches to carbon separation over decades to where he is now. “People have been working on this thing for 50 years, and nobody’s come up with a really good way to do it,” said Noble. “But I thought, ‘We should be able to make a material that has really high productivity and works for a long time.’ And what we have now has immense potential.”
Another key lesson Noble teaches his students is the importance of working as a team to drive successful innovation. “You really have to be curious, you have to take risks, and you have to develop trust amongst the people you’re going to work with,” he said. “It’s not just one person generating things and then making the ultimate decisions. [Innovation] requires a cooperative approach to moving forward. It's a community.” Noble acknowledged the many fruitful partnerships he’s had over the years, including those with long-time collaborator Doug Gin, who passed away last July.
“It’s going to be very satisfying for me, and all the people that have worked with me over the years to see something that we worked on become commercial while making a quantum improvement in that technology area,” said Noble. “Because that’s what this is–a real game changer.”
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