patentECO - Fill 'Er Up - With What?

Fill ‘Er Up — With Electrons or Hydrogen?

Gasoline, compressed air, hybrid gas/electric, diesel, electric, compressed natural gas, hydrogen, gas/electric/steam — some of the vehicle power sources in recent patents. There are also patents pertaining to the fueling station technologies for these types of vehicles.

For example, Meyer Steinberg (Meville, NY) was recently granted Patent Number 7,910,258 for his invention “Natural gas direct carbon fuel cell,” which provides a natural gas fueled, direct carbon fuel cell producing electricity and hydrogen. The patent, issued on March 22, 2011 and assigned to HCE, LLC of Oakton, VA, is classified as 429/472 chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus, product, and process, using a fuel cell with a molten electrolyte.

Claim 1 states:

“A natural gas fueled, direct carbon fuel cell for producing electricity and hydrogen comprising:

a cathode compartment comprising: an oxygen-containing gas;

a carbon dioxide feeding port;

and a molten electrolyte;

an anode compartment comprising: a port for feeding natural gas to the anode compartment;

a hydrogen extraction port;

a carbon dioxide extraction port;

and a slurry comprising said molten electrolyte;

wherein the anode compartment further comprises: a louvered baffle dividing the anode compartment into an ante-chamber adjacent to the port for feeding natural gas, wherein the ante-chamber comprises the hydrogen extraction port;

and a main chamber adjacent to the separator between the cathode compartment and the anode compartment;

and an electron insulating, ion conducting, porous ceramic separator between said cathode compartment and said anode compartment.”

Steinberg’s invention uses methane or natural gas as a fuel in a direct carbon fuel cell to co-produce hydrogen and electricity. He envisions that it “is especially amenable to producing and supplying hydrogen at vehicle gas filling stations. A natural gas fed direct carbon fuel cell is much more efficient and economical than conventional steam reforming of natural gas now being deployed for supplying hydrogen at gas filling stations. It also can do so with considerably reduced greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emission compared with the conventional steam reforming process . . . [c]arbon dioxide is emitted at 100% concentration [from the fuel cell], so it can be easily collected and either sold or sequestered. Furthermore, [his] invention simultaneously produces electricity and hydrogen. The electricity can be sold to power companies . . . or can be dispensed at the gas station for electrically powered vehicles.” Maybe we’ll need to refer to them as electricity outlets, rather than gas stations.

Found in the patentECO Energy Index, this invention may have a long wait to market penetration, given the recent (temporary) shutdown of the Chevy Volt line.

patentECO - Almost No Carbon Dioxide Emissions

No CO₂ from Carbon-based Fuel

Sounds like a bumper sticker. It’s actually the subject of Patent Number 8,047,007 issued  to Robert M. Zubrin (Indian Hills, CO) and Mark H. Berggren (Golden, CO) on November 1, 2011. Their invention, “Methods for generating electricity from carbonaceous material with substantially no carbon dioxide emissions,” assigned to Pioneer Energy, Inc. (Lakewood, CO), provides in claim 1:

“A method for generating power from carbonaceous material, comprising:

boiling water into steam;

reforming the carbonaceous material with the steam to generate a high-pressure gas comprising carbon dioxide gas and hydrogen gas, wherein sufficient steam is provided to ensure a substantial majority of the carbonaceous material is converted into carbon dioxide gas and hydrogen gas;

exchanging heat from hot gas exiting the reforming step with the steam entering the reforming step;

separating at least a portion of the carbon dioxide gas from the high-pressure gas to generate a carbon dioxide-rich gas and a hydrogen-rich gas;

utilizing the carbon dioxide-rich gas in an industrial process;

and generating power in a power generation system from a portion of the hydrogen-rich gas, wherein waste heat from the power generation system is used to provide heat to the boiling water step.”

The carbonaceous material is selected from coal, biomass, natural gas, crude petroleum, ethanol, methanol, and trash, according to claim 2. The industrial process which uses the CO₂-rich gas is fuel production, growing algae and growing plants in greenhouses, or carbon sequestration in a saline aquifer, depleted oil field, depleted gas field, or unmineable coal seam, according to claims 15-17. Claims 19 and 20 require that the power generation system is either a gas turbine or a fuel cell.

The invention is classified as 60/780, for power plants having a fuel conversion (e.g., reforming, etc.) process. It was one of the patents issued from the USPTO’s Green Technology Pilot Program, which accepted applications for accelerated examination from December 8, 2009 through mid-February 2012. The patent issued 6 months after the application was filed; the average pendency for Tech Center 3700 (the Tech Center responsible for this subject matter) in 2011 was 37.4 months according to the USPTO’s Data Visualization Center’s Patent Dashboard.

In this case, the inventors and assignee were well-served in achieving an accelerated examination for their clean technology, found within the patentECO Energy Index.

patentECO - The First Clean Tech Patent

The First US Clean Tech Patent

The US Patent & Trademark Office recently closed its Green Technology Pilot Program that provided accelerated examination of patent applications meeting certain criteria to qualify as clean technology.

What was the first US clean technology patent? It probably was issued sometime after the growing movement of ecological awareness in the early 1970s, wouldn’t you say? Or perhaps the first clean tech invention came about in response to the publishing of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” in 1962?

Before we proceed, we should review a portion of our patentECO clean technology definition:

“Clean technologies use less material, less energy, minimize waste, or lessen negative environmental consequences.”

The patentECO Industry Index includes technologies pertaining to waste minimization, improved production processes that reduce resource (e.g., feedstocks, process chemicals, energy inputs) requirements, and reducing the use of toxic or potentially harmful chemicals when possible, to name a few.

The first US clean tech patent was issued to Edward M. Chaffee of Roxbury, MA. His invention is titled “Application of Caoutchouc to Cloths, Leather, and Other Articles.” He developed an improved process for preparing, coloring, and applying india-rubber to cloth of all kinds, leather, and other articles, without the use of a solvent. Classified in the US Patent Classification (USPC) as 156/231, the invention is found with others that pertain to adhesive bonding and other chemical manufacture, “with formation of lamina of continuous length by molding or casting on endless carrier”. This is patent-speak for processes that form a continuous layer by casting or molding on an endless belt or calendar roll carrier, contacting the layer while on the carrier with a preformed base and then removing the layer from the belt or carrier. Chaffee’s invention has the distinction of being the first one issued with that classification as the original classification; the original (or first-listed US classification on a patent) represents the central inventive subject matter of a patent.

Chaffee’s patent was the 16th issued by the Patent Office, on August 31, 1836.

The second patent in this classification was awarded 13 years later, in 1852, to a New Haven, CT inventor named Charles Goodyear.

Thus, clean tech inventions in the US have been with us for 176 years, and started in industry, with a concern for reducing solvent use in a manufacturing process.

patentECO - Windustry Update

The Windustry, the global wind power industry, is reporting a slowdown.

Jonathan Buck, who writes the European Trader column in Barron's reports that Vestas Wind Systems (symbol VWS.Denmark) has dropped more than 60% because the wind-energy market isn't growing as fast as it had been.

Vestas Wind Systems started the year trading at over $186.00 per share but closed on Friday at $59.50.

On November 9th the firm announced its 2015 targets will be abandoned as the wind turbines maker posted a third quarter net loss noting that renewable energy is still heavily dependent on state-backed subsidies and as European leaders are dealing with mounting debt and fiscal issues, the industry faces a tough future.

Vestas also lowered expectations for 2012 and 2013 due to the potential expiration of production tax credits in the US at the end of 2012.

In November Vestas announced that it received orders for delivery of a total of 77 wind turbines  to two US wind farm projects.  The turbines will be installed at Palouse Wind Project and Bull Hill wind power plant located in Whitham county, Washington and Hancock, Maine respectively.  In December 2011, the firm also received an order for installation of 32 wind turbines in Sweden.  While the industry continues to get orders the pace is slowing down.

According the the American Wind Energy Association, 85,000 Americans are currently employed in the wind power industry and related fields.   The US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics page on Wind Energy has a two year old map (circa 2009) that shows where the major players in the windustry are located and provides a nice chart of the wind energy supply chain and an overview how wind projects work complete with a table listing the types of jobs found in the industry.  Oddly, at this writing, the first image on the page is a solar farm.  the same page shares some cross departmental information from a 2008 report the Department of Energy that says that, "it may be feasible for wind power to provide 20% of U.S. electricity needs by the year 2030."  Perhaps its time for the US government's windustry gurus to talk with the leading providers of wind turbine technology and get their projections in sync.