Business Methods Mash Up

Today we bring you the Business Methods Clean Tech Community Mashup.

A “System and method for building a green community” was patented in mid-January 2013. The business method invention was granted to Nancy Lynne Welsh (Raleigh, NC). Welsh’s invention, protected by US 8,355,995, is for

“a system and method for building a green community construction. The system and method may comprise preparing a site for green community construction, acquiring housing for the site, wherein the housing is acquired below assessed value, moving the housing to the site, and remodeling the housing at the site to form the green community.”

The key features in the patent’s claims are listed below.

1. A computer-implemented method for managing green housing community construction, wherein the method is executed by at least one programmed computer processor which communicates with at least one client via a network, the method comprising:
   • coordinating preparation of a site for green housing community construction
   • processing acquisition of existing housing for the site, wherein the existing housing is acquired below assessed value, and the existing housing is slated for demolition
   • scheduling transfer of the existing housing to the site
   • managing remodeling of the existing housing at the site to form the green housing community
2. receiving one or more permits for site construction
3. receiving funding for site construction
4. performing foundational work for the site
5. searching for housing based on at least one of location, value, type, size, and provider
6. performing at least one of assessments and inspections on the housing
7. determination of acceptable housing for the site
8. determining one or more move routes for transporting the housing from an original site to the site for green housing community construction [Editor’s note: how disruptive will moving enough houses from dispersed locations to create the ‘green community’ be?]
9. acquiring unwanted materials from the original site for reuse, wherein the unwanted materials comprise at least one of brick, asphalt, wood, shrubbery, and recyclable materials
10. remodeling is achieved in at least one of the following: foundational remodeling, exterior remodeling, interior remodeling, and community remodeling
11. using at least one of recyclable materials, energy-efficient materials, and green-building approved materials
12. A computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions to perform the acts of the method of claim 1. [Editor’s note: this claim and its phrasing help the inventor meet machine-or-transformation tests necessary for business methods patenting. This is software and the hard-drive it runs on.]
13. A computer-implemented system for green housing community construction … [Editor’s note: similar to claim 1 contents, but this covers the software, server, and client system; again, needed to qualify for business methods status.]
14. A method for transforming a plurality of houses initially situated in different locations and slated for demolition into a green housing development solely formed from the plurality of houses …
    • preparing a development site
    • defining a plurality of criteria for the houses, including the distance and route from a present location of the house to the development site, the maximum width and height of the house, and the cost of the house
    • searching for and identifying existing houses that are slated for demolition and that meet the plurality of criteria
    • effecting the transfer of ownership of the houses
    • transporting each of the houses from its present location to the development site
    • installing each of the houses on a foundation
    • remodeling using green construction methods
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: hiring at least one disadvantaged person to perform the remodeling, wherein the disadvantaged person is a homeless person, an at risk youth, or a person with a criminal record; training the disadvantaged person to perform the remodeling; and providing a ongoing, customized work mentor program for the disadvantaged person.
16. criterion for cost is that the house is donated [refers to cost in claim 14]
17. installing computers and wireless access in the houses at the development site

The problem Welsh is trying to solve is discussed in the patent’s specification:

"Buildings have a profound effect on the environment. … Although green building in residential sectors is receiving increased attention due to environmental issues such as global warming, rising energy prices, and indoor air quality issues, there continues to be high number of residential tear-downs in or near larger cities across the United States with no environmentally viable replacement strategies currently available. In addition, costs associated with green building are often significantly higher than conventional construction. For example, green construction may be 5% to 20% more expensive than conventional construction. Furthermore, designs and plans for green construction do not typically include a comprehensive and integrated approach for using recycled housing, guidelines for using such materials, and strategies for continued neighborhood development. 

As a result, there are significant problems and shortcomings associated with current building techniques. Therefore, a system and method for constructing a green community using recycled housing, implementing custom guidelines for using such materials, and/or continuing neighborhood development would be highly desirable."

We’ve written about business methods, software patents, and clean tech applied to building construction and housing in past posts. Additional information on business methods patents may be found here.

Time will tell whether or not this approach to community construction has any commercial viability. Perhaps it is a modern-day version of the numerous utopian communities that were attempted in the 1800s?

But another question given how residential real estate works is whether this is novel and whether this is patentable.  We'll see.

PBR – Rubber, Not Beer

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/1,3-Butadiene_Polymerization.PNG

It was always curious  the fear that college organic chemistry engendered in students. Yes, it could wrap your brain around the axle learning the various bond types, transition states, and compound-naming conventions, but come on, gang, it’s fascinating!

A recent posts featured a photo of a stack of tires. The Rubber Manufacturers Association estimates that 292 million tires weighing a total of 4.9 million tons, were scrapped in the US in 2009. The largest percentage of these (40.3%) were disposed of as tire-derived fuel, with the next largest category being ground rubber. For this end-use, molded and extruded products, sports surfacing, playgrounds/mulch/animal bedding, and automotive uses were the descending order of uses. The RMA also estimates that 162 million new tires were manufactured in the US in 2012.

A common thread between tires and your car, the roads you drive on, the tennis courts you play on, surgeries or medical implants and devices you might be treated with, and that evil-of-evils (not!), hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking), is polybutadiene rubber (PBR). Polybutadiene is a polymer (a chemical compound or mixture of compounds consisting of repeating structural units – proteins, DNA, and the polystyrene found in styrofoam are polymers.) first polymerized by Russian chemist Sergei Vasilyevich Lebedev in 1910. The compound is highly wear resistant, and about 70 percent of its production is used in tire manufacture.

Electrically conducting tires

One of the most recently issued patents related to the use of PBR in tires is US 8,376,005, “Pneumatic tire.” It was granted in February 2013 to Norihiko Nakamura (Osaka, Japan) and assigned to Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd., also of Osaka. His abstract summarizes the invention:

“A pneumatic tire that can be manufactured according to the conventional method without requiring special tire manufacturing steps and without needing addition of material members and production steps, has excellent rolling resistance and wet properties, and has conductivity. A pneumatic tire has a side wall contacted with a rim strip of a bead part and extended outward in a radial direction of a tire from the bead part to be coupled to a ground contact edge region of a tread part, the side wall comprising a two-layer structure of an internal layer rubber and an outer layer rubber, characterized in that on the circumference of unilateral or bilateral part of the tire, the rim strip and either the internal layer rubber or the external layer rubber of the side wall are formed into a continuous conductive path by a conductive rubber material, only the conductive path is used as a conducting path of the tire, and members other than the conductive path are selected and used from a conductive rubber material or a nonconductive rubber material.” Drawing references deleted for clarity.

As is common in modern tires, silica is used in the tread rubber. This leads to a problem, however: “With this silica compounding technology, static electricity charged in vehicles gives rise to the problems that discharge phenomenon is generated when a tire passes on manholes and the like, resulting in radio noise, adverse influence to electronic circuit parts, generation of short-circuit, and the like.”

Nakamura solves this static electricity problem by including a conductive rubber material in the tire tread. That conductive layer contains polybutadiene rubber.

Tires in your roads

“Asphalt rubber is the largest single market for ground rubber, consuming an estimated 220 million pounds, or approximately 12 million tires,” according to the USEPA. Ground tire rubber (including the PBR found in tires) can be blended with asphalt to provide longer-lasting road surfaces, reduced maintenance, lower road noise, and shorter braking distances.

Lance Allan and Jim Farnell (both of Santa Fe Springs, CA) have received one of the most recent patents related to rubber-containing asphalt – US 8,377,190, “Methods and arrangement for creating asphalt emulsion,” issued in February 2013. They provide “[a] method for creating asphalt emulsion …. The method includes heating a base asphalt. The method also includes injecting the base asphalt into a colloid mill. The method further includes breaking up the base asphalt into small particles. The method yet also include preparing a soap solution, wherein the soap solution includes an acid, water, and a first emulsifier, wherein the first emulsifier is an alkyl amines salt based emulsifier. The method yet further includes combining the small particles of the base asphalt with the soap solution to create the asphalt emulsion.” Their claim 6 specifies that the “base asphalt is a tire-rubber-modified asphalt”.

We considered pothole repair last year.

Athletic courts, concert stages

David Barlow (Seminole, FL) received US 8,266,857 in September 2012 for his invention “Interlocking floor system with barbs for retaining covering.” He provides “[a] flooring system includ[ing] multiple polymeric panels that are interlocked into a floor system and then covered with a material such as carpet and artificial turf. A top surface of the polymeric panels includes barbs to hold the material from moving laterally during use.” He envisions that his floor covering can be used on basketball courts, concert stages, as the finished surface for athletic courts, or as an underlayment for tennis courts or lawn bowling areas. The rubber in the panels “can include structural foam and processed recycled automobile tires mixed in a bonding agent.”

PBR in medicine

The synthetic rubber polybutadiene plays a role in the medical device industry. A recent invention in this art is US 8,303,973, “Multifunctional compounds for forming crosslinked biomaterials and methods of preparation and use,” granted in November 2012 (on Election Day, to be precise) to George Y. Daniloff and co-inventors and assigned to Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (US), Inc. (Seattle, WA). Daniloff et al.’s abstract states:

“Multifunctional compounds are provided that readily crosslink in situ to provide crosslinked biomaterials. The multifunctional compounds contain a single component having at least three reactive functional groups thereon, with the functional groups selected so as to be non-reactive in an initial environment and inter-reactive in a modified environment. Reaction of a plurality of the multifunctional compounds results in a three-dimensional crosslinked matrix. In one embodiment, a first functional group is nucleophilic, a second functional group is electrophilic, and at least one additional functional group is nucleophilic or electrophilic. Methods for preparing and using the multifunctional compounds, and kits including the multifunctional compounds are also provided. Exemplary uses for the multifunctional compounds include tissue augmentation, biologically active agent delivery, bioadhesion, and prevention of adhesions following surgery or injury.”

Polybutadiene is one of the ‘multifunctional compounds’.

Rubber in fracking fluids

We’ve considered in past posts the process of hydraulic fracturing and inventions related to various aspects of this process that is re-defining natural gas production, especially in the US. You can find them by searching here. A review of hydraulic fracturing fluid is here.

A team of Schlumberger Technology Corporation inventors led by Evgeny Barmatov were granted US 8,141,637, “Manipulation of flow underground”, in March 2012. Their invention relates to placement of propane in a formation, or to blocking unwanted flow paths in the underground rock. Their abstract states:

“Solid material required at a subterranean location is supplied from the surface suspended in a carrier liquid and agglomerated below ground by means of a binding liquid. To achieve agglomeration, the binding liquid and the particulate solid are similar to each other but opposite to the carrier liquid in hydrophilic/hydrophobic character. The solid and the binding liquid may both be hydrophobic while the carrier liquid is hydrophilic, or vice versa. The solid may be hydrophobically surface modified to render it hydrophobic. The binding liquid may be provided as a precursor which converts to the binding liquid below ground to trigger agglomeration after arrival at the subterranean location. The agglomerates may function as proppant heterogeneously placed in a fracture of a reservoir, or may serve to block an unwanted path of flow. The binding liquid may polymerise after agglomeration so as to stabilise and strengthen the agglomerates.”

According to claim 17, “the binding liquid undergoes polymerisation after the agglomeration has taken place.” The patent’s Specification clarifies that the binding liquid can contain polybutadiene - that same compound found in your tires.

PBR in fracking well cement

When oil and gas wells (including those used for hydraulic fracturing) are drilled, a long length of pipe (the casing) is placed in the wellbore and a cement slurry is then placed between the casing and the surrounding rock formation. Many factors determine the composition of the cement slurry (this is not like mixing a sack of concrete to fix your sidewalk or patio), including slurry density, rheology, pump time, fluid loss, settling and gas migration mitigation during placement and compressive strengths for long term performance, according to inventors B. Raghava Reddy and Krishna M. Ravi. They were granted US 7,913,757, “Methods of formulating a cement composition,” in March 2011. Their patent is assigned to Halliburton Energy Services. Inc.

Reddy and Ravi provide “[a] method of cementing a wellbore in a subterranean formation, comprising formulating a cement composition that may be suitable for long-term zonal isolation of the subterranean formation by evaluating a subterranean formation, preparing a base cement composition, determining the compressive strength of the base cement composition, determining the tensile strength of the base cement composition, and adjusting the ratio of compressive strength to tensile strength as need to within a first optimizing range to form a first optimized cement composition, and placing the optimized cement composition in the wellbore.” To adjust the strength of the slurry mixture they incorporate “an elastomer, a rubber” or a combination. One of the rubber compounds they specifically claim (claim 13) is cis–1,4-polybutadiene rubber - the same PBR used in tires.

Technologies cross

These inventions are examples of the cross-cutting nature of technology and how a given material, compound, process, or mechanism can be used across a very wide range of art. In addition, the nature of innovation is such that it is unpredictable, although much effort is spent on the part of industry to try to determine future innovation trends, in part from looking for “holes” in existing patterns of inventions (this is known as whitespace or gap analysis). A compendium of recent advances in clean technology can be found in Way Better Patents’ Green Tech Discovery and Analysis report.

A Bonus

You, your kids, or parents (or grandparents for that matter. Now that is stunning.) may have enjoyed using this PBR-based product. A hint – it hit the market in the mid–60s, and it has a resilience factor greater than 90%, which is a huge part of its appeal.

Renewables in the Sky

Renewable energy generation at the utility scale in the US was derived from multiple sources in 2011. Hydropower was the largest source (63% of renewable energy) followed by wind (23%). Solar power contributed less than one percent of renewable energy that year. Renewables as a whole represented 13% of the overall electricity generation mix, according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration. Renewable energy sources are well-known in the transportation industry (e.g., electric vehicles, hybrid gas-electric vehicles, natural gas vehicles, fuel cells, etc.). Efforts are underway to develop biofuels for the aviation industry.

Not to be forgotten are proponents of solar energy that hope to develop and demonstrate solar-powered airplanes.

The Invention

US Patent 8,002,216, “Solar powered wing vehicle using flywheels for energy storage,” was issued to inventor Darwin Kent Decker in August 2011. His patent is for “[a] solar powered air vehicle that can stay aloft for indefinite periods of time. The vehicle employs photovoltaic solar cells for primary power and high speed counter-rotating flywheels for energy storage and steering of the vehicle. The flywheels are placed in the wing to reduce airfoil drag. A control law provides three-axis stabilized control of the vehicle by controlling propeller pitch to vary the speeds of the flywheels.” His purpose for the solar flying wing clearly falls within the clean tech realm:

”With the threat of global warming and increasing gasoline prices, the interest in solar powered aircraft using photovoltaic solar cells has increased.”

Advantages of a solar-powered plane include:

”… it can stay aloft for indefinite periods that may extend into years of time similar to the operation of a satellite. Further, the solar powered aircraft can perform many of the present functions of a satellite without the cost of an expensive launch vehicle and without eventually creating orbital waste. The solar powered aircraft can return to earth for maintenance and be re-configured for a variety of missions. Typical applications include surveillance and tracking, homeland security, communications, oceanography, and meteorology. Many of these applications require operation at high altitudes greater than 60,000 feet where air breathing engine are less efficient.”

He notes that:

”A more appropriate energy storage device [i.e, than batteries or fuel cells] for use with long life solar powered airplanes is a high speed flywheel with a composite rotor and magnetic bearings. High speed flywheels provide superior energy per unit weight than batteries in applications where long cycle life is required. Composite rotors have demonstrated over 112,000 cycles in laboratory tests. Furthermore, flywheels provide a more efficient energy to thrust ratio for this application than batteries since batteries store energy chemically. Converting electrical energy to chemical energy, then back to electrical energy and then to rotational energy is inherently less efficient than converting the electrical energy directly to rotational energy in the flywheels and then using torque conversion to apply the energy directly to rotating propellers. Furthermore, flywheels produce moments and gyroscopic couples that can be used to steer the aircraft and eliminate or reduce the need for additional steering devices such as flaps, fuselage and a tail section that create additional drag on the vehicle. To date, flywheel energy storage has not been used in solar powered air vehicles.”

Note the similarity of the body structure of the ‘216 patent to that of the Northrup XB–35 flying wing from the 1940s.

Other Renewable Energy in Aircraft?

Decker proposes to use solar power. Various companies, including Amyris Biotechnologies (see our 1/12/12 post linked above), are developing aviation biofuels. What about wind power?

Interestingly, the earliest patent cited by Decker in the ‘216 patent is US 1,245,902, issued in November 1917 to Frank Gretsky of Coal Center, PA. His invention “Aeroplane motor” had the object of providing,

“a simple, practical and efficient attachment of strong, durable and comparatively inexpensive construction comprising a wind wheel adapted to be mounted on the propeller shaft and connected with the same by a train of gears so that the wind from the propeller, or resulting therefrom by the passage of the aeroplane through the air, will act on the wind wheel and assist in rotating the same and thereby effect a saving of fuel.

A further object of this invention is to provide a motor of this character adapted, in event of the internal combustion engine of the aeroplane becoming inoperative while the aeroplane is in the air, to serve as a wind motor for actuating the propeller and thereby rendering the aeroplane more easily handled and comparatively safe under such conditions.”

Gretsky was awarded a patent for mounting a windmill on an airplane to aid in, or wholly provide, its propulsion, and his intent in 1917 was to save fuel using wind power. Once again, we see that clean tech is not new, and our forebears were no less interested in energy savings, renewable energy and conservation than we are.

A Third-Generation Explorer Counts on The Sun

Bertrand Piccard is now a decade in to his Solar Impulse project that seeks to develop solar-powered planes. The Solar Impulse plane will be conducting test flights at NASA’s Moffett Field in May, and then is planned for a demo cross-country flight to Washington DC and New York. Piccard ultimately hopes to fly the plane around the world. The plane, a single-seater, has a 208-feet wingspan (equivalent to an Airbus A340), weighs a little more than 3,500 pounds, and is powered by four 10-horsepower electric motors. It will store electricity in lithium polymer batteries during the day for use during night flight. The plane’s upper wing surface and horizontal stabilizer house 11,628 solar cells.

These cells are manufactured by SunPower, one of the solar companies receiving patents under the USPTO Green Technology Pilot Program. Although this is a high-profile opportunity for SunPower, it has not been without its troubles in a turbulent solar market.

Piccard is the third generation of a family of noted explorers. His grandfather Auguste Piccard was a balloonist that established world records for high altitude balloon flight (a predecessor of Felix Baumgartner’s amazing flight last October on the anniversary of Chuck Yeager’s breaking the speed of sound). Piccard’s father, Jacques Piccard, was the first submariner (along with his dive companion Don Walsh) to reach the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. They used the submersible Trieste to descend to 35,797 feet below the ocean’s surface on January 23, 1960. The Trieste was designed by Jacques’ father Auguste. The Challenger Deep was not re-visited by humans until March 2012 when the film-maker James Cameron reached the deepest point on earth in the Deepsea Challenger. Bertrand Piccard fulfilled Jules Vernes’ dream expressed in “Around the World in Eighty Days” when he co-piloted the first non-stop circumglobal balloon flight. Fascinating articles on all three men may be found in back issues of National Geographic magazine. A good article on Solar Impulse was recently published by Gigaom.

Clean technologies and renewable energy are being applied to aviation - but they have been for a long time.

End Note:
Gretsky’s windmill-on-a-plane, 1917. We’ve written it before, but the old patent drawings are art, unlike the sterile CAD depictions in today’s patents. It is not progress when aesthetics and beauty are abandoned.

Government Interest Statements for September 11, 2012

Each week Way Better Patents publishes a list of the latest patents and patent applications that contain Government Interest Statements or include a Joint Research Agreement (JRA) statement.  The list includes the patent information, the assignees, the funding agency, and the actual statement which usually includes the contract numbers for federally funded research efforts.  The JRA statement usually identifies the parties working together on the intellectual property.  

Here is a summary of granted patents that contain a government interest statement or a joint research agreement statements for September 11th, 2012.  

46	Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
35	Department of Defense (DOD)
21	Department of Energy (DOE)
18	National Science Foundation (NSF)
3	National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
3	Small Business Administration (SBA)
1	Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
1	Department of the Interior (DOI)
1	Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
1	General Services Administration (GSA)
1	Library of Congress (LOC)
1	National Security Agency (NSA)
1	Department of Agriculture (USDA)

118	United States of America
2	Canada
2	India
1	Israel

23	California
9	New York
9	Pennsylvania
7	New Mexico
5	Illinois
5	Texas
4	Indiana
4	Massachusetts
4	Maryland
4	Michigan
3	New Jersey
3	Ohio
3	South Carolina
3	Tennessee
3	Utah
3	Virginia
3	Washington
2	Alabama
2	Arizona
2	Connecticut
2	North Carolina
2	Nebraska
2	Oregon
2	Wisconsin
1	Arkansas
1	District of Columbia
1	Florida
1	Georgia
1	Hawaii
1	Idaho
1	Kansas
1	Minnesota
1	Missouri

patentECO - Add Carpet and Stir...Alternative Concrete

Alternative Concrete

We offer a generic concrete recipe:

• 4 parts gravel
• 2 parts sand
• 1 part Portland cement and water

• Mix ingredients, pour into forms, and allow to set.

Various forms of concrete have been used since the times of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans. Concrete is one of the strongest, and most widespread, building materials. Its manufacture and use offer opportunities to apply clean technology from multiple patentECO indexes such as Air, Energy, Industry, Extraction & Harvesting, and Water.

Inventors James Glessner (Santa Rosa, CA), Richard McCabe (Occidental, CA), and Meredith Ware (East Palo Alto, CA) offer a glimpse of how concrete can be more efficiently made. Their invention, patent number 7,727,327, is a “Low embodied energy concrete mixture.” Awarded on June 1, 2010, the patent is classified as 106/644 which includes inventions dealing with fiber, bar or wire containing compositions within the coating or plastic compositions technologies. Why would cleantech concrete be found here?

It all depends on how the technology class, in this case Class 106 Compositions: Coating or Plastic, is defined by the USPTO. Their definition states:

“This class is the broad generic class for:

(1) Coating, impregnating or plastic compositions, especially those which set or harden to retain a given shape. Most of the compositions herein found are those which are capable of undergoing a change from a fluent to a nonfluent condition, or from a solid noncoherent form to a solid coherent form, which changes may be effected in any or more of the following ways:

1. By setting, e.g., concrete . . .”

Glessner et al. claim:

“1. A cementitious mixture comprising: Portland cement; fly ash; silica fume; recycled aggregate; ground recycled carpet fibers; organic fibers; and water.”

This claim gets us into clean technology via “recycled aggregate; ground recycled carpet fibers; organic fibers . . .”

They further claim (claim number in parentheses) that 

• the ground recycled carpet fibers comprise nanoparticles (2)
• the recycled aggregate comprises crushed, recycled concrete (3), recycled glass (4), crushed concrete and bricks (5)
• the organic fibers are rice hulls and other natural waste fibers (7)
• ground granulated blast furnace slag (8), lime kiln dust (12), or cement kiln dust (16) is substituted for some of the Portland cement
• a high range water reducer (20) is added to the mixture.

The inventors’ intention is to reduce the amount of energy needed to manufacture concrete by substituting recycled materials for Portland cement, which requires large amounts of energy to make. The use of recycled materials substituted for aggregate reduces the amount of virgin aggregate that would otherwise need to be mined. Assuming that the strength characteristics of the concrete made according to the invention are satisfactory for the intended use, this appears to be a multiple win-win clean technology innovation.

patentECO - Wind & Water

US Patent 6,023,105

Hybrid Energy — Water & Wind

Grid energy storage, or large-scale energy storage, if you prefer. It’s one of the phrases you hear bandied about in discussions of alternative energy, solar and wind power, and other forms of non-continuous energy generation and refers to ways of storing electricity on a large scale within a power grid. The only currently available, fully operational, efficient, and widely used grid storage technology is pumped storage hydroelectricity.

Hydropower produced 31 percent of the total renewable energy consumed in the US in 2010, according to the US Energy Information Agency. Wind produced 11 percent. What would happen if you coupled water and wind energy generation technologies?

Wasfi Youssef (Mamaroneck, NY) obtained patent number 6,023,105, “Hybrid wind-hydro power plant,” on February 8, 2000. The patent is classified as a prime-mover dynamo plant including a fluid-current motor (290/54). There are currently (early January 2012) 749 patents in this innovation space within the patentECO Energy Index.

Claim 1 states:

“A hybrid wind-hydro power plant in which a difference between two water levels is utilized to generate an electrical power, comprising:

a first water reservoir located at a high level;

a second water reservoir located at a low level;

an equipment for pumping water from said second low reservoir to said first high reservoir consisting of: (a) a water pump positioned in said second reservoir for pumping water to said first reservoir, (b) a penstock from said pump to said first reservoir, which has a non-return valve to allow water flow upstream but not downstream, and (c) a windmill with a rotational shaft coupled directly to said water pump to rotate said water pump and act as a prime mover for said water pump;

a hydraulic turbine installed to receive water via penstock from said first reservoir and to discharge said water to said second reservoir and to convert said water's kinetic energy into mechanical energy of turbine rotation;

an electrical generator coupled to said turbine and rotated by said turbine to produce electrical energy.”

Youssef intends that wind-driven pumps lift water from downstream, or the tailwater area of a hydropower station, to upstream, or headwater. An adjustable weir constructed downstream the water pump holds the water discharged from the turbine and creates a pool or lake from which water can be pumped. The weir can be lowered or raised, allowing the water flow can be managed to suit the wind and the hydropower plant operation.

Another application of his invention is at sites where the wind is strong and there are two nearby waterbodies separated in elevation. The wind-driven water pumps lift water from low elevation to high elevation, where it is stored until used by the hydropower plant to generate electricity. In this application, a hydropower plant is needed, but a dam and adjustable weir are not needed.

Any type of windmill can be utilized, although a vertical-axis type is preferred by the inventor to a horizontal-axis windmill. The former requires fewer connecting components and its tower is much smaller than that of the horizontal-axis type. On the other hand, the horizontal-axis type can be built in larger units and can be more efficient.

The world’s largest pumped hydro facility lies in Bath County, VA, and generates 3,003 MW of power for Dominion. In recent years there has been much interest expressed by wind energy developers to create large mountain-top wind farms in that part of Virginia  and adjacent West Virginia. Will the Bath County pumped storage station become a water and wind hybrid?

patentECO - Lots of Holes

Four Thousand Holes

“I read the news today oh boy

Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire

And though the holes were rather small

They had to count them all . . .”

These lyrics, by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, from the last verse of “A Day in the Life” on the classic 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, were inspired by an article they read in the January 7, 1967 UK Daily Mail about . . .

. . . potholes.

Much of the U.S. will soon be moving into pothole repair season. What a treat it is to hit one at speed in traffic on an interstate. Potholes are pretty mundane, but represent a non-trivial source of annual vehicle repair costs to US motorists. A 2009 report by the the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and TRIP entitled “Rough Roads Ahead, Fix Them Now or Pay for It Later” estimates that rough roads add $335 annually to typical vehicle operating costs, and may be as high as $746 in urban areas with high concentrations of rough roads.

So what does the Beatles’ song “A Day in the Life”, and a report about rough roads have to do with patentECO and clean technology innovations?

Three patents, as examples.

Patent number 6,984,670, “Recyclable composite materials articles of manufacture and structures and method of using composite materials,” was issued on January 10, 2006 to John J. Meyers, III (Penfield, NY), John H. Swartz (Coraopolis, PA), and Nathaniel G.  and Matthew J. Kurczewski (Moon Township, PA) and assigned to Ace Tire & Parts, Inc. (Coraopolis, PA). The patent is classified (521/50 with other inventions that deal with a process of treating scrap or waste product containing solid organic polymer to recover a solid polymer therefrom, which lies within a broad class accepting synthetic resins or natural rubbers.

The invention uses a composite material using recyclables (glass, polymers, plastics, rubber, both fiberglass and asphalt roof/siding shingles, coal combustion by-products, metals) and that does not contain newly added petroleum products or new, non-recycled chemicals. This material may be used to fill potholes in asphalt and concrete pavement, fill manhole cover recesses, to make expansion joints in roadways, and in building materials, such as, for example, building blocks, structural panels and other structural elements including pipes and fixtures.

Patent number 6,652,185, “Fast efficient permanent pavement repair material system,” was issued on November 25, 2003 to William D. Frey of Leawood, KS. Frey’s invention can be found with others that provide a reinforced structure in a road structure, process, or apparatus (404/70).

Frey’s innovation provides a repair composite for pavement and pothole repair. The repair composite is composed of an a polyester casting resin premixed with dry silica sand, cobalt in combination with dimethylanaline, and a catalyst. How is this clean tech? According to the invention summary, “[t]he use of this composite will eliminate the use of most of the heavy equipment normally used in road repair.”

Patent number 6,588,973, “Pavement method and composition with reduced asphalt roofing waste,” was invented by James S. Omann (Rogers, MN), and granted on July 8, 2003. The invention deals with pavement aspects of a road structure, process, or apparatus (404/17).

Omann has invented a method of manufacturing and applying a novel pavement and patch material for roadways, driveways, walkways, patch for potholes and like surfaces, including the steps of reducing recycled asphalt roof waste to granules, adding aggregate and other solid recyclable materials to the granules, adding rejuvenating oil, adding emulsifier, adding asphalt concrete oil, adding anti-strip additives, adding liquid silicone, mixing the composition, heating the composition, applying the composition to the roadway or the like and compacting a new paving material.

These inventions fall within the recycling aspect of the patentECO Industry Index, but also within the road construction materials and techniques components of the Transportation Index.

And the lyrics at the top of this piece are found within the great music index.

patentECO - No-Till Poultry Litter

No-till poultry litter

The Shenandoah Valley, where I live, is a major poultry producing area. The Valley lies within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, a 64,000 square-mile area that contributes tributary flow, and pollutants, to the Nation’s largest and most productive estuary. In 2010, the Chesapeake Bay watershed produced more than 1 billion broiler chickens, 27.5 million turkeys, and 1.5 million tons of poultry litter, which is the bedding material and poultry manure produced by the poultry houses that raise the birds. Poultry litter contains significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, and represents a valuable source of agricultural fertilizer (and a potential alternative energy source).

These 1.5 million tons of litter also represent a significant source of nonpoint source pollution to the region’s waterways after the litter is applied to farm fields. An article this morning in our local paper covered a research project now underway in the area that is testing a new piece of agricultural equipment that can potentially reduce pollutant loads from field-applied poultry litter.

The equipment injects poultry litter below the surface of a field in a manner similar to that used in no-till agricultural practices. After some detective work, I found that this equipment was recently granted a US patent.

Patent number 7,814,848, “System for distributing poultry litter below the soil surface,” was granted to Daniel H. Pote (Booneville, AR) and Stephen M. Haller (Magazine, AR) on October 19, 2010. Pote and Haller are employees at the Dale Bumpers Small Farm Research Center in Arkansas; the Center is a part of the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The patent is assigned to USDA. It is classified as 111/130, which covers planting technology that uses broadcasting. As of early January 2012, 278 patents are found in this subclass, with the earliest issued in 1841 for a rotary cultivator. It was Patent number 2,040; check out the drawing — it’s art.

Back to the present. Claim 1 states:

“An apparatus for distributing soil amendment materials comprising:

a) a plurality of soil cutting blades effective to cut a plurality of substantially parallel trenches in the soil when pulled through the soil in a direction of travel;

b) a dispenser for delivering soil amendment material to the trench cut in the soil rearward of said cutting blades, wherein said dispenser comprises:
1) a receptacle comprising opposed front and rear walls and opposed side walls, an inlet for said material, and a lower surface extending between said walls;
2) said lower surface comprising a plurality of substantially parallel elongated troughs disposed substantially longitudinally along the length thereof, each of said troughs having an outlet at the bottom thereof, wherein each said outlet is positioned adjacent to one of said front wall or rear wall and rearward of and over the path of travel of one of said cutting blades effective to dispense said material to said trench in the soil;
3) a plurality of screw augers, wherein one said auger is disposed in each of said troughs and said augers are adapted to both transport said material in a direction along the length of said troughs toward said outlets and grind or shear said material as said material is transported;
4) an upstanding face plate disposed laterally between said side walls substantially perpendicular to said troughs and augers, and on the side of said outlets which is upstream from said direction of transport of said material in said troughs, said face plate defining first and second volumes within said receptacle, said first volume being upstream of said face plate relative to said direction of transport of said material, and said second volume being downstream of said face plate relative to said direction of transport of said material and encompassing said outlets; and
5) said face plate comprising a bottom edge adjacent said troughs and an upper edge disposed above the uppermost radial edge of said augers, and said face plate further comprising a plurality of openings through which said screw augers pass.”

This technology, found in the patentECO Agriculture Index, allows biodegradable solid soil amendment material, such as poultry litter, to be disposed of in soil by cutting soil trenches, grinding or shearing the material, and distributing it to the trenches in the soil.

A November 2010 press release from ARS announced that an exclusive license was awarded to BBI Spreaders of Cornelia, GA to commercialize this technology. BBI’s spreaders can also use precision agriculture electronics. ARS estimates that nutrient losses from field application of poultry litter can be reduced by 90 percent. Widespread use of these spreaders could make a significant contribution to the long-term and ongoing efforts to improve water quality in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

patentECO -- Low Tech Clean Tech

Low Tech Clean Tech

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “clean tech”? Advanced, complex water or wastewater treatment facilities? Extensive wind energy farms? Clean rooms where solar panel technology is constructed? Hybrid fuel cars?

What about a PVC or concrete pipe 39-48” long, 16” in diameter containing a layer of fine sand over gravel?

Patent number 5,993,672, “Slow sand filter for use with intermittently flowing water supply and method of use thereof,” was granted on November 30, 1999 to David Manz of Calgary, Canada, and assigned to University Technologies International Inc., the technology transfer arm of the University of Calgary. The patent is classified as 210/744, which places it with inventions dealing with level sensing aspects of liquid purification or separation technologies.

Claim 1 of the patent states:

“A method of operating a slow sand filter for use with an intermittent supply of water, the filter including a container, filter material partially filling the container and having a top, a water inlet above the filter material and a water outlet within the filter material, the method comprising the steps of:

supplying an intermittent flow of water to the container; and

maintaining the water level in the container above the top of the filter material even when there is no flow of water through the slow sand filter at a maintenance level that is selected such that (1) water falling onto the water in the container does not disturb a schmutzdeuke layer formed on the top of the filter material and (2) the schmutzdeuke will survive even when there is no flow of water through the container for at least 24 hours.”

A “schmutzdeuke layer”? What in the world (at least we assume it is not alien) is that? “Schmutzdecke” is a German word that translates as “dirty layer.” If you look in the Background and Summary of the Invention section of the patent (which follows the claims), Manz defines the “schmutzdeuke layer” as a biological layer that forms at the top of sand when the sand is immersed in flowing water for several days. The schmutzdeuke is formed from various organisms such as algae, plankton, diatoms, protozoa and bacteria. It entraps and partially digests and breaks down organic matter container in the raw water passing through the filter. The organic matter accumulates on the schmutzdeuke and simple inorganic salts are formed. At the same time, inert suspended particles in the raw water are removed mechanically. You can see this reddish-brown layer if you have a sand-filtered aquarium. Think of it as a living version of a coffee filter.

Slow sand filters are effective in removing bacteria, parasites, Giardia cysts, Cryptosporidium oocysts and viruses from water. In fact, sand filters might be a major component of the water treatment plant that provides your drinking water if you are on a municipal water system. While bacteria, parasites and viruses may be killed or rendered inactive with disinfection, dormant cysts and oocysts are very resistant to disinfection unless the disinfectant is administered very intensively. Slow sand filters may be used to supply clean water directly for consumption or may be used to supply water for further treatment, such as by reverse osmosis and ultra-filtration, both of which processes require quite clean water to begin with.

Manz’s invention, by providing a static water level above the sand layer, allows the biosand filter to be used in situations where the water supply is intermittent (the biological filter layer dies if it dries out), such as wilderness cabins, third-world countries, and disaster settings.

Simple technology, such as this one in patentECO’s Water Index, can be clean.

patentECO - Water on the Move

Power From Flowing Water

The American Water Works Association reports that water systems are evaluating applying smart grid technology to the treatment, distribution, and monitoring of drinking water. Recent patents support this development.

Patent number 7,605,485, “Systems and methods for generating power through the flow of water,” was issued October 20, 2009 to Barth Robins Pitchford (Fairfax, VA), William Dudley Pitchford (Fairfax, VA), Robert Paul Simon (Fairfax, VA), C. David Binning (Warrenton, VA), and David Lewis Rasmussen (Vienna, VA) and was assigned to the Fairfax County (Virginia) Water Authority. The patent is classified as 290/43 for prime-mover dynamo plants, and specifically fluid current motors. As of January 5, 2012, this subclass contains 524 patents related to hydroelectric, wave, and wind power generation, among others.

The FCWA is Virginia’s largest water utility, serving one out of every five Virginians who obtain their water from public utilities. Nearly 1.7 million people in the Northern Virginia communities of Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Alexandria obtain their drinking water from FCWA.

Claim 1 states:

“A power generator system comprising:

a rotating device adapted to rotate in response to a flow of water on the rotating device;

a drive magnet operatively coupled to the rotating device and adapted to rotate in response to the rotating device rotating;

a registration magnet operatively coupled to the drive magnet and adapted to rotate in response to the drive magnet rotating;

a power generator operatively coupled to the registration magnet and adapted to harvest and store energy in response to the registration magnet rotating;

a rectifier operatively coupled to an output of the power generator and adapted to convert the energy from an alternating current (AC) to a direct current (DC);

a first power storage device adapted to be charged by an output of the rectifier and a second power storage device adapted to be charged by an output of the first power storage device;

and a processor configured to monitor voltages levels of the first power storage device and second power storage device and cause a transfer of energy from the first power storage device to the second power storage device in the event that the voltage level of the first storage device is above a first threshold and the voltage level of the second storage device is below a second threshold.”

This invention generates and harvests energy in response to the flow of water through rotating device, such as a nutating or oscillating disk. Mechanical energy from flow of water is converted into electrical energy via an energy conversion unit. The power generation system may be used to power electronic and mechanical devices used in automated meter reading (AMR) systems. The power generator system may recharge a storage circuit that enables long term AMR operations without the need for battery replacement. The power generation system, in various embodiments, can provide additional power for two-way communication and other sensors such as pressure, temperature, water quality and services such as remote shut-off, event-based messaging, and water quality monitoring.

These inventors and assignee also were granted patent number 7,671,480, “Systems and methods for remote utility metering and meter monitoring,” issued March 2, 2010. This patent is also classified as 290/43. The patent is a divisional of the application that led to the ‘485 patent. A divisional patent application occurs when a patent examiner determines that a patent application describes more than one invention (a patent can only describe one invention). The original patent application is "divided" into a new application referred to as a divisional patent application.

These types of inventions are a component of the emerging smart water grid. They also illustrate linkages between patentECO indexes, in this case, Energy and Water.

patentECO - Green Snow Removal

I Don’t Mind Snow, But I Can Do Without Ice

As I write this article in very early 2012, it is snowing here in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. A nice, gentle dusting of snow. Very unlike the Snowmageddon of 2009-2010. I’ve seen no indication of any snow removal equipment yet this morning, which reminds me, what about clean snow removal technology in the patentECO sphere?

For many years, various mixtures of grit and rock salt have been used on highways for snow removal and ice control. More recently, chemical compounds and mixtures that have a lower negative environmental impact and greater melting efficiency have been used.

Two recent patents illustrate this shift.

Patent number 7,879,254, “Snow removal agent and preparation method,” was issued on February 1, 2011 to Seung Cheol Jung and Moo Woong Jung, both of Incheon, South Korea. This patent is a continuation of patent number 7,666,324, “Snow removal agent and preparation method thereof,” issued the previous February 23 to the same inventors. Both patents are classified as 252/70, which are inventions for frost-preventing, ice-thawing, thermostatic, thermophoric, or cryogenic compositions.

The earliest US patent in this class and subclass was patent number 533,950, “Composition for melting snow,” issued in February, 1895. This early invention used a combination of water, common salt, acetic acid, and hydrochloric acid — perhaps not the best combination if one is interested in reducing environmental impacts.

Claim 1 of the ‘254 patent states:

“A snow removal agent for melting snow, comprising magnesium chloride, halite, urea, sodium tripolyphosphate and sodium metasilicate, wherein the sodium tripolyphosphate and the sodium metasilicate each account for an identical weight percentage in the agent, wherein the halite is crushed to a size of 7-20 mm and aged for 24-48 hours.”

Jung and Jung point out that their invention “reduces the corrosion of metallic materials of iron structures, automobiles, etc., is safe when used for a long period of time, is without the problem of re-freezing, significantly reduces the yellowing and withering of plants and is good for the growth of plants . . .” Further, their snow removal agent is “unharmful to plants, fish and shellfish.”

We find this invention in the patentECO Industrial index, which includes green chemistry and clean industrial technology. The slogan used by DuPont from 1935-1982, “Better Things for Better Living . . . Through Chemistry” certainly fits here.

patentECO - Is Your Garden Clean or Green?

Is your garden clean and green?

It’s time to think of gardening. One of the tricks known for many years to get an early start on fresh vegetables is to warm the soil. Another related trick to increase your garden’s yield is to limit weed growth and competition for soil nutrients.

How are these gardening techniques related?

Plastic mulch.

Uri Peled (Zichron Yaakov, Israel) and Karl Heinz Bartnig (Ruethen, Germany) were issued patent number 6,601,338, “Plastic film for use in agriculture”, on August 5, 2003. The patent is classified as 47/9, which is Plant husbandry, mulching.

Claim 1 of the invention states:

“A polymeric, multilayer, photoselective mulch film for use in agriculture, Comprising at least two layers, an upper layer facing the sky and a lower layer facing the ground, each of said layers being of a different color, and each being light-transmissive;

wherein said upper layer is of a color which repels insects, and said lower layer is of a color whereby the solar radiation transmitted by said film and reaching the ground is of such a spectral composition as will largely deprive weeds of essential photosynthetically active radiation, while having a spectral component that will be absorbed by, and will heat, the ground.”

That’s pretty self-explanatory. There are obviously other inventions related to mulching of garden and commercial crops. These inventions are found in the agriculture domain of patentECO.

You might be interested to also learn of the two earliest clean tech patents for mulching technology.

The earliest was patented in 1867, by William Griffith of North East, PA. His invention, patent number 64,760 entitled “Mode of propagating grape-vines from single buds in the open field,” claimed “[t]he mode of propagating grape-vines, substantially as set forth, in open-field culture, by covering single bud cuttings with a cold mulch, applied in sufficient depth to keep down the temperature of the bud, and thereby retard its sprouting until the roots have been adequately developed.” His preferred mulch was a two-inch covering of “sawdust, tan [this was the depleted bark from leather tanning operations], or other suitable material.” His intention to increase crop yield through better bud propagation, and his use of sawdust or depleted leather tanning bark as the mulch, all qualify as clean tech, in two different domains, in fact. Agriculture (yield enhancement) and Industry (recycling).

The second oldest mulching patent was number 80,053, “Improved mode of mulching strawberry-beds”, issued in 1868 to Joseph Brett of Geneva, OH. Brett’s invention, also intended to enhance crop yields, relied on planting his own mulch: “The mode of mulching strawberry-beds by sowing thereon the seeds of plants [he preferred oats, but “other plants of analogous character may be used.”], the stalks or blades of which are intended to serve as a mulch therefor, substantially as set forth.” Again, clean tech in multiple domains.

Much of what we consider now to be clean technology is old clean technology with new packaging or using newer materials.