Industries of the Future

The mission of the "Louisiana Industries of the Future Teams"(LIFT) program is to facilitate technology development and transfer from Louisiana's academic institutions and the national laboratories to Louisiana industries so they become more competitive due to decreased costs, increased energy efficiency, and reduced waste.

LIFT is a Louisiana Department of Natural Resources sponsored project based upon the award of grants from US Department of Energy, Office of Industrial Technology. The Industries of the Future Program (IOF) project is a strategy which creates industry specific steering committees to accelerate technology research, development, and deployment that industry decides is needed to make them more globally competitive. These work groups are composed of industry and academic representatives. The national Industries of the Future program also developed state IOF programs to identify state or region specific approaches, share information and technology and identify priorities in individuals states.

As environmental compliance costs increase and the government's research and development spending declines, the focus of federal research and development is being directed toward benefitting energy intensive industries. Nationally, government partnered with these industries to develop technology road maps outlining each industry's vision of goals for the year 2020 and the technology required to reach these goals. There are nine energy intensive industries included in the national Industries of the Future Program: agriculture, aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, mining, petroleum refining, and steel. Of these nine Louisiana has five of them: agriculture, chemicals, forest products, mining, and petroleum refining.

LIFT will establish industry specific steering teams to develop statewide goals and technology roadmaps that will guide academic and government research activities to meet Louisiana's industrial needs. This partnership of industry, academia, and government will identify industry's common needs, seek solutions and exchange ideas. Current plans call for committees from chemical and refining companies to be meeting in 2002. Forest products would be the third committee formed in late 2002. A Steering Team, composed of members from the industry specific steering committees, academic institutions, and state government, will be assembled to direct the program's growth.

Other Information

DOE Office of Industrial Technologies