The Rich History of Commercialization of Laser-Induced Fluorescence

St. Germain, Randy W.

The Rich History of Commercialization of Laser-Induced Fluorescence

Sunday, November 10, 2013: 10:00 a.m.

Randy W. St. Germain, M.S. , Dakota Technologies, Inc, Fargo, ND

Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) was fully developed, commercialized, and generating high quality high-resolution logs of non-aqueous phase liquid in 1994. Yet it took a full 15 years for the technology to achieve modest acceptance by the site cleanup community. The penthouse-to-basement-to middle class journey of the technology (and its inventors/advocates) contains valuable insights into how, and how not to, go about successfully commercializing effective but novel technologies in the environmental site remediation arena. The author (one of the original co-inventors of LIF) will present:

A brief overview of the technology itself
The inventors and their roles
The licensing scenario that crippled LIF’s commercialization for 10 years
The role of regulators
The role of R&D and demonstration grants
The difficulty in conclusively “validating” downhole technologies
Marketing/Advocating proven but “exotic” new technologies
New LIF tools destined to test the community once again

Randy W. St. Germain, M.S., Dakota Technologies, Inc, Fargo, ND

Randy W. St. Germain developed much of Dakota’s underlying nanosecond time-resolved fluorescence measurement technology during his M.S. work at North Dakota State University from 1987 to 1991. Mr. St. Germain received his Master's degree in 1991. Mr. St. Germain co-founded Dakota Technologies, Inc. with Dr. Gregory Gillispie in 1993. Mr. St. Germain has designed and built a continually improving series of direct push deployable laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) site characterization systems for delineation of petroleum, coal tar, and creosote contaminated sites, including sediments in water bodies adjacent to such sites.