On The Railroad Redux

The Inkling's October 9, 2012 post was about patent US 8,117,969, a BNSF Railway patent for “Hydrogen fuel cell hybrid locomotives,” issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office in February 2012.  Way Better Patents took a macro view of the patent and the invention, describing the major types of railroad locomotives and the petroleum and electricity used by US locomotives. 

On October 15, 2012, David Gibbs, a contributor to Eric Lane’s Green Patent Blog posted an article on the very same patent. Gibbs provides a micro treatment, emphasizing the business aspects of BNSF, describing where the new hybrid locomotive was tested and how it might be used in BNSF’s system.

The Clean Tech universe benefits when information about important innovations that have the potentially to be transformational are disseminated to as broad an audience as possible.

Carbon Dioxide Reduction - Different Strokes for Different Folks

On August 1, 2012 the US Energy Information Administration stated that

"U.S. carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions resulting from energy use during the first quarter of 2012 were the lowest in two decades for any January-March period. Normally, CO₂ emissions during the year are highest in the first quarter because of strong demand for heat produced by fossil fuels. However, CO₂ emissions during January-March 2012 were low due to a combination of three factors:

• A mild winter that reduced household heating demand and therefore energy use
• A decline in coal-fired electricity generation, due largely to historically low natural gas prices
• Reduced gasoline demand."

Their news release went on to say that “The decline in coal-related emissions is due mainly to utilities using less coal for electricity generation as they burned more low-priced natural gas … Natural gas is the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel, producing the lowest CO₂ emissions.”

In this post we’ll look at two Air Index patents issued in 2012. In reviewing these, I’m reminded of the chorus from the song "Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off" by the great Ella Fitzgerald and Satchmo (Louis Armstrong for some of you):

"You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther,
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let’s call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto,
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let’s call the whole thing off!"

There are many ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, and these two patents illustrate widely different approaches. One actually reduces emissions, the second – not so much.

Reducing CO₂ in offshore natural gas

Daniel Chinn (Bay Point, CA) and a team of co-inventors were granted US 8,192,524, “Process for upgrading natural gas with improved management of CO₂” on June 5, 2012; their patent is assigned to Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
Chinn et al. state the problem they are attempting to solve:

”Offshore gas fields in many parts of the world produce natural gas containing a significant amount of carbon dioxide (e.g. greater than 10 vol % CO₂). For example, the CO₂ content of natural gas streams originating offshore can be as high as 80 vol %. 

In contrast, at onshore locations where natural gas is to be used, the natural gas should generally have a relatively low CO₂ content. For example, a lower CO₂content corresponds to a higher heating value for the natural gas. CO₂ can also lead to freezing in the low-temperature chillers in liquified natural gas (LNG) plants. 

There are two main approaches to upgrading natural gas offshore. The first approach involves blending the gas with sufficiently low CO₂ gas to reduce the overall CO₂ content. The second, alternative approach involves subjecting the gas to some type of CO₂ removal process. 

… there is a need for a process for producing a CO₂-depleted product gas stream from natural gas containing a significant amount of carbon dioxide (e.g. greater than 10 vol % CO₂). Such process should require minimal equipment weight and energy and take up minimal space. Moreover, such process should exhibit minimal hydrocarbon losses to the CO₂-rich permeate. Accordingly, such process will be useful for upgrading natural gas offshore, will be profitable, and will result in minimal GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions.”

They achieve their goal by using a polymer membrane filtration process in which a natural gas feed stream comprising water vapor and greater than about 10 vol % CO₂ is passed to a membrane unit. The membranes are selectively permeable to CO₂, allowing it to be separated from the natural gas and, according to the patent, “disposed of in any manner known in the art.” In other words, their invention separates the carbon dioxide, it’s up to you to get rid of it.

The drawing for this invention, which illustrates this post, is fully in keeping with the sterile line drawings that we have come to expect from modern patents, and is one of the least meaningful ones that we’ve run across in the universe of clean and green technology.

Emissions Trading, or Sales?

The second patent in today’s lineup is, according to the USPTO, primarily a business method – a clean tech (or green tech, if you prefer) business method invention, with a slight flavoring of hazardous or toxic waste destruction or containment. US 8,126,780, “Method for cultured sea algae” was issued to Katsumi Iwai and Hiroshi Horibata, both of Tokyo, Japan, on February 28, 2012.

Iwai and Horibata seek to provide a “method and apparatus for utilizing, processing, distributing and an accompanying business model for sea algae, particularly forced cultured kombu, to prevent the expansion of global warming, by encouraging a re-purchase of the cultured sea algae, by paying the purchaser back, in a constant rate, a part of the profit from the sales of a CO₂ omission [sic] right, which right depends upon the CO₂ absorption and fixation ability.”
From Wikipedia:

”Kombu (昆布 in Japanese, and 海带 in Chinese, Saccharina japonica and others), several Pacific species of kelp, is a very important ingredient in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines. Kombu is used to flavor broths and stews (especially dashi), as a savory garnish (tororo konbu) for rice and other dishes, as a vegetable, and a primary ingredient in popular snacks (such as tsukudani). Transparent sheets of kelp (oboro konbu) are used as an edible decorative wrapping for rice and other foods. Kombu can be used to soften beans during cooking, and to help convert indigestible sugars and thus reduce flatulence.”

Both natural and cultured kombu beds are harvested.
So how does a business method patent about cultured kelp help to reduce atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide?
Claim 1 states:

A method for cultured algae comprising: 

storing, in a computer data base, records of culturing conditions, yield, and carbon fixation volumes for a sea algae culturing facility of a predetermined scale in a specific sea area; 

obtaining, via a remote sensing device configured to perform at least one of space satellite remote sensing, under water remote sensing, and direct artificial sensing, data pertaining to actual culturing conditions, yield, and carbon fixation volumes associated with the sea algae culturing facility; 

storing, in a computer data base, the data obtained pertaining to the actual culturing conditions, yield, and carbon fixation volumes; 

comparing the obtained data pertaining to the actual culturing conditions, yield, and carbon fixation volumes to the stored records of culturing conditions, yield and carbon fixation volumes of the sea algae culturing facility; 

computing a weight of cultured sea algae and a carbon fixation quantity from the obtained data and certifying the computed carbon fixation quantity in the presence of a third party; 

calculating a greenhouse gas omission [sic] right based on the certified carbon fixation quantity and the computed weight of the cultured sea algae; 

selling the greenhouse gas omission [sic] right through a global warming gas omission [sic] right trading mechanism; 

processing at least a portion of the cultured sea algae to produce a product, the product including at least one of a food article, an industrial article, and an agriculture-forestry-marine article; 

and distributing, via a market, the product produced from processing at least a portion of the cultured sea algae.

Kelp, an algae, is a plant. Plants convert carbon dioxide (in this case CO₂ dissolved in ocean water) to sugar through the photosynthetic process. They absorb CO₂ and fix it in sugar stored in their cells. In a nutshell (or maybe thallus since we are discussing kelp), this patent would calculate the amount of carbon dioxide fixed as sugars in the harvested cultured kelp, certify that computation “in the presence of a third party”, calculate a greenhouse gas omission [sic] (note to USPTO: your examiners should do a better job of correcting important errors such as substituting the word ‘omission’ for ‘emission’ in their correspondence with inventors.) ‘right’, sell that ‘right’ “through a global warming gas omission [sic] right trading mechanism” (will Al Gore get a cut? Where has Al Gore been during this very hot, stormy, and drought-ridden summer, by the way?), and processing the kelp and distributing the product to market.

Note that nothing in this patent actually reduces atmospheric CO₂ emissions, it merely provides a mechanism to separate people from their money so they can feel good about having saved the planet from global warming.

Kelp growers/harvesters/processors establish omission [sic] rights? This is an entirely new one to me.

You really owe it to yourself to read through this patent, particularly the Background of the Invention and the Brief Description of Disclosed Invention sections (which constitute a the first major part of the patent “Specification”).

patentECO - Green Technology Program Closed

USPTO Green Technology Pilot Program Closes

or

Tripping Through La-La Land

The USPTO Green Tech Pilot Program has closed and is no longer accepting additional applications.

How do we know this? Because of the heading on what passes for the Program home page:

One can only assume that 3500 applications were accepted into the program, as the page does not explicitly state this, other than the ‘3500th’ highlighted in the graphic.

And what about knowing the date on which the Program closed? That information does not appear.

In an effort to track down this information, on February 25, 2012, I emailed the Office of Patent Legal Administration at the email address (PatentPractice@uspto.gov) provided at the bottom of the Program home page, asking for the closing date and total number of applications accepted into the program. One would think that would be pretty simple to answer, as someone made a decision to close the program because some threshold had been met. As of today (February 28), there’s been no reply.

So, I decided to call the phone number provided (571-272-7701). I spoke with a very pleasant young man who informed me that the Office of Patent Legal Administration really had nothing to do with the Green Technology Program (to his credit he was aware that it had closed, which I found out when he launched in to a soliloquy before I had even completed my initial question to him, and he assumed that they had received a lot of applications) and I needed to contact the Office of Petitions.

I called the Office of Petitions, and was swept in to their automated voice mail system. As I did not, thank you very much, want to press a lot of buttons, but wanted to speak with a live human-type person, I didn’t press any buttons on my phone, as directed, and then had to endure the hideous noise that passes for background music (note to USPTO voice mail system administrators — get a clue. The background noise is not helpful to your clients’ state of mind). After about 6-10 cycles (it probably only seemed liked 20-30), a pleasant operator answered the phone, and, in response to my question, informed me that I would need to speak with one of the Office attorneys.

Back in to voice mail perdition.

Finally, after finishing my cup of tea, a person (attorney??) answered. After succinctly describing the two (2) pieces of information I wanted, I was informed that “We don’t know, we really don’t do anything with that Program. You’ll need to speak with the Office of Patent Legal Administration, they are the ones that handle this.” I really was very kind (really) when I thanked her for her help.

The source code for the Green Tech Program home page shows the following:

We can therefore assume (and an assumption is all it is, as apparently no one in the known universe, or least the USPTO corner of it, really has the information) that the Green Technology Pilot Program closed on or about February 15, 2012 after receiving 3500 applications. 

Another frightening example of how dysfunctional the federal government is.

patentECO - Water - The New Oil

Water is the new oil.  This means two things 1)  inventions that conserve water or improve its distribution and treatment will be very important; and, 2)  the companies in the water industry will be hot commodities as the source of both new products and services and value growth and financial gains for their investors.

According to Citigroup, 70% of the globe's population will live in urban areas by 2050.  The demand for water will skyrocket by five times.

“As urban areas increase in size and become more affluent, changing diets and sanitation requirements can cause the demand for water to increase five-fold beyond the ‘basic water requirement’ needed for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene,” wrote Michael Geraghty of Citi’s global equity strategy group.

Willem Buiter, the bank's global economist sees water as one of the most important physical commodity asset classes predicting, "fleets of water tankers..and storage facilities that will dwarf those we currently have for oil, natural gas, and liquified natural gas (LNG).

Citibank identified the following firms as companies to watch:

Danaher Corporation (DHR) which trades on the NYSE and has a market cap of $32.24 Billion as of December 2011.  Danaher is a diversified industrial firm.  Its environmental segment provides products to help protect the Company's water supply and air quality.

 G.U.D. Holdings (GUD), an Australian industrial firm owns Davy, a water products firm that manufactures, sources, and distributes a comprehensive range of products for the transfer, conservation, and treatment of water.  The latest addition to their patent IP is US patent 7,997,295, "Controller, system, and method for providing supplementing water."

Pentair (PNR), a water filtration firm with a market cap of $3.25 Billion and 99.8 million shares outstanding.

Nalco (NLC) a water services firm that was recently acquired by Ecolab (ECL) to create an $11 Billion global leader in cleaning, sanitizing and water management serving institutional, industrial and energy markets. (They use a lot of water.)  The merger was completed on November 30, 2011.  Nalco holds patents across a variety of technologies and has a number of applications pending including work done in collaboration with Rice University.

Valmont Industries (VMI) manufactures mechanized irrigation systems as part of its industrial goods business.  It's known for its industrial lighting, support structures, all of which play a part in the emerging clean tech marketplace.  The firm's most recent published patent application is for a mechanized irrigation system.

We'll be keeping track of innovations in the water space and at these firms as part of our patentECO clean tech analysis.