A review of the patent publications from the last half of 2014 indicates that there is no shortage of biofuels and biofuels-related research. This is especially true in the fields of starter materials, process efficiency, and process management. This article will review some of the latest published patent applications from 2014 and give some insights into potential trends for 2015 based on current publications.
Current patent publications have been shifting in the direction of describing research around working with known biofuel materials and either improving the material and/or improving the process. There are also groups of publications focused on fuel optimization through the addition of other components and/or better engine design. At the outset, please note that this article is not advocating or determining the patentability of any of these technologies. The content of this article is directed to an objective summary of some of the biofuel-related patent art. This article will touch on several different categories of biofuel and biofuel-related patents and publications as a review of the publications from this past year. Specifically, the following topics are discussed: increasing the efficiency of the biofuel production process, additives and end uses, and fermenters used in the production of biofuels.
Process Efficiency
This category regularly makes up the largest class of patents, patent publications, and journal articles, primarily because it is often easier to optimize the production of existing and known biofuels, as opposed to developing and testing potential new biofuels. It is clear from the number of patent applications from the second half of 2014 that this category of technology is not going away and is not nearing a close. Here are a few examples of the work currently being applied for at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
US Patent Publication 20140329280,
Processing Biomass
(inventor: Marshall Medoff; assignee: Xyleco, Inc.; November 6, 2014) discloses “biomass (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) that is processed to produce useful products, such as fuels. For example, systems can use feedstock materials, such as cellulosic and/or lignocellulosic materials and/or starchy or sugary materials, to produce ethanol and/or butanol, e.g., by fermentation.” According to the inventors, “the invention pertains to methods of changing a molecular and/or a supramolecular structure of a biomass feedstock…the methods include irradiating and quenching the biomass feedstock. In other implementations, the methods include irradiating the feedstock, cooling the feedstock, and again irradiating the feedstock. Specifically, the claims recite a method comprising: applying a first dose of ionizing radiation to a flowing biomass, cooling the biomass with a cooling fluid, and applying a second dose of ionizing radiation to the flowing biomass. In one aspect, the invention features methods that include quenching a biomass feedstock that has been irradiated to ionize the biomass feedstock so that the feedstock has a first level of radicals which are detectable with an electron spin resonance spectrometer, to an extent that the radicals are at a second level lower than the first level. Some methods further include processing the irradiated and quenched biomass feedstock to produce a product.” This application is currently being examined at the USPTO, and a non-final office action has been issued in the case by the Examiner.
Author's note: Before one can begin to review patents and patent publications, it is important to understand what it is important to focus on and what it is not. There are two types of published patent applications – those that have issued and those that have published but are still pending and under examination. This article will primarily focus on patent publications, since those documents are indicative of more recent research and development of biofuels. In fact, the patent applications that were published in 2014 were probably filed in early to mid-2013, since new patent applications do not publish until 18 months after they are first filed.
An issued patent has a fixed set of claims at the end of that patent that defines the invention regardless of what is included in the detailed description section. Anyone reviewing issued patents for an indication of the actual invention should turn to the claims section first. The detailed description section should primarily be used to provide context of the claims and/or definitions of some of the terms/phrases in the claims. Issued patents are in force 20 years from the filing date, and they give the patent owner the right to exclude others from making, using, and/or selling the claimed invention in the country where the patent issued.
Published patent applications are useful to provide notice to the general public and/or competitors as to potential future patents and their scope. Between the filing date or priority date of the application and the publication date, the patent application is not published, and therefore, not readily available to the public for review.
Inventors use pending patent publications to put likely competitors on notice that they may have enforceable patent rights at some point in the future. Competitors use patent publications to scope out the technology landscape. It is important to note, however, that the existence of a patent publication does not necessarily mean that a patent will issue from that application or that the final issued set of claims will be the same or resemble the claims in the publication. These publications should primarily be used for notice and information purposes.
The content of this article is not intended as legal or financial advice. Views expressed are those of the author and should not be construed as necessarily representative of Buchalter Nemer, Industrial Biotechnology journal, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, or their affiliates. No endorsement of any entity or technology is implied.
US Patent Publication 20140325898,
Method to Optimize Biodiesel Production
(inventors: Jeffery Thompson, et al.; November 6, 2014) teaches apparatus and related methods for “reacting a natural oil and salt composition with a short chain alcohol in the presence of an alkaline catalyst to produce biodiesel, significantly decreasing the amount of time for the glycerol byproduct to settle out of the reaction mixture. The process for the production of biodiesel includes combining animal or vegetable oil with a salt to create a first component, combining a short chain alcohol with a strong base to create a second component, and combining the first and second components together. The combined compositions represent a reaction mixture that undergo a transesterification reaction and produce fatty acid methyl ester biodiesel and also a glycerol byproduct.” The independent claims recite: “a process for the production of biodiesel, comprising: a) combining animal or vegetable oil with a salt to create a first composition; b) combining a short chain alcohol with a strong base to create a second composition; and c) combining said first and second compositions together.” The inventors state that they improve the process, because “in traditional biofuel production once the transesterification reaction is complete, the glycerol byproduct must be given time to settle out. The amount of time required for the glycerol to settle out of the reaction mixture is one limiting factor in the production of biodiesel that causes problems when trying to produce the fuel on an industrial scale. It takes approximately eight hours for the byproduct glycerol to sufficiently settle out of the reaction mixture, such that a suitable biodiesel fatty acid methyl ester may be retrieved. Other factors, such as the speed of the transesterification reaction itself, also present problems in deriving a biodiesel production technique that is efficient enough for industrial scalability.” The patent application has not yet been assigned an Examiner or docketed for examination.
US Patent Publication: 20140315265,
Process of Producing Oil from Algae Using Biological Rupturing
(inventor: James R. Oyler; October 23, 2014) discloses “a process for production of biofuels from algae can include cultivating an oil-producing algae, extracting the algal oil, and converting the algal oil to form biodiesel. Extracting the algal oil from the oil-producing algae can include biologically rupturing cell wall and oil vesicles of the oil-producing algae using at least one enzyme such as a cellulose or glycoproteinase, a structured enzyme system such as a cellulosome, a virus, or combination of these materials.” According to the inventors, “a novel feature of the invention is the use of algae as an intermediary step which allows the production of biodiesel rather than bioethanol or other alcohol from generic biomass.” “Biomass can be depolymerized to produce sugar. The sugar is then fed to oil-producing algae, which convert the energy content of the sugar into oil (algal triglycerides), which can then be further converted into biodiesel. Most of the energy of the sugar ends up as useful fuel, rather than suffering the fermentation losses which occur during the production of alcohol, e.g. in the form of heat and carbon dioxide emissions.”
Starting Materials
Patent applications related to new or modified starting materials continue to be the second most popular group of applications behind process efficiency. In many instances, there are no entirely new starting materials, but instead there are more conventional starting materials that are being modified to make them better starting materials for new processes. The three highlighted below are representative of many of the applications from the second half of the year.
US Patent Publication 20140331363,
Plants with Altered Glucoronoxylan Methyl Transferase Activity and Methods of Use
(inventors: Maria Pena, et al.; assignee: University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc.; November 6, 2014) discloses plants having “altered glucuronoxylan methyl transferase (GXMT) activity, including reduced GXMT activity. In one embodiment the plant is a transgenic plant.” Methods for using such plants are also disclosed, including “methods for processing a part of a plant to result in a pulp, methods for hydrolyzing a pulp, and methods for producing a metabolic product.” Plant materials are also described from a plant having altered GXMT activity, and pulp from a plant having altered GXMT activity. The current claims are directed to a “transgenic plant that comprises decreased GXMT activity compared to a control plant. According to the inventors, secondary cell walls are the dominant component of plant lignocellulosic feedstocks. The polysaccharides in secondary cell walls include cellulose, heteroxylans (glucuronoxylans, 4-O-methyl glucuronoxylan, glucuronoarabinoxylans, and/or arabinoxylans) and glucomannans. These polysaccharides are converted in a process known as saccharification to fermentable sugars for the production of liquid fuels and other chemical feedstocks. The cost of bioconversion to these products is increased by the recalcitrance of lignocellulosic feedstocks to saccharification.” This patent application is ready to be examined at the USPTO.
US Patent Publication 20140315268,
Method of Producing Biofuel Using Sea Algae
(inventors: Myung-Kyo Shin, et al.; assignee: Korea Institute of Industrial Technology; October 23, 2014) describes and claims a method of producing biofuel, and more specifically “a method of producing biofuel comprising the steps of generating monosugars from marine algae, or from polysaccharides extracted from marine algae by treating the marine algae or the polysaccharides with a hydrolytic enzyme and/or a hydrolytic catalyst; and fermenting the monosugars using a microorganism to produce biofuel.” The inventors believe that the embodiments disclosed in their application solve the problem of “raw material suppliance, since it uses marine algae as a raw material for biomass, and reduces the production costs by excluding lignin eliminating processes that have been required by the conventional method using wood-based raw materials, resulting in economic and environmental advantages.” Specifically, “a method of producing biofuel comprising the following steps: generating monosugars selected from the group consisting of galactose, galactose derivative, and 3,6-anhydrogalactose by treating red algae selected from the group consisting of Eucheuma spinosum, Gracilaria chorda, Grateloupia lanceolata, Hypnea charoides, Gigartina tenella and Porphyra suborbiculata, or polysaccharides extracted from red algae selected from the group consisting of Eucheuma spinosum, Gracilaria chorda, Grateloupia lanceolata, Hypnea charoides, Gigartina tenella and Porphyra suborbiculata with a hydrolytic enzyme and/or a hydrolytic catalyst; wherein the extraction of the polysaccharides is performed by the following steps: soaking the red algae in an alkali aqueous solution and washing them with water; soaking the washed red algae in an extraction solvent for a predetermined time and extracting one or more polysaccharides selected from the group consisting of agar, carrageenan and alginic acid; and separating the extracted polysaccharides and collecting the remaining starch or cellulose; and fermenting the monosugars using a Brettanomyces custersii.”
US Patent Publication 20140309444,
Production of Biofuel from Tobacco Plants
(inventor: Ronald T. Petruso; assignee: Delaware Valley College of Science & Agriculture; October 16, 2014) discloses a method of producing biofuel from tobacco biomass “including solvent extraction of the tobacco biomass with methyl acetate or ethyl acetate, transesterification of the oil obtained from the biomass and separation of the biofuel from the transesterified product.” According to the inventors, “excellent yields of biofuel based on the weight of the biomass are obtained…Any species or type of tobacco plant may be use for the present invention. Tobacco plants having higher oil or lipid contents in their biomass are a preferred type of tobacco for use in the present invention. For example, Navajo Mountain tobacco, which has a relatively high oil content in its biomass, is a preferred type of tobacco for use in the present invention. Tobacco plants genetically engineered to have high oil or lipid contents in their biomass may also be used. Suitable genetically engineered tobacco plants include those described in, for example, Andrianov et al., “Tobacco as a production platform for biofuel: overexpression of Arabidopsis DGAT and LEC2 genes increases accumulation and shifts the composition of lipids in green biomass,” Plant Biotechnol J., Vol. 8, pages 277-87 (2009); and U.S. 2010/0184130)…. In some embodiments of the invention, it may be desirable to grow the tobacco plants hydroponically in order to speed growth, produce higher yields and/or grow the plants year round. Hydroponic cultivation allows growth of the tobacco plants under highly controlled, reproducible conditions, and facilitates efficient harvest of the extensive, filamentous root system in a clean, intact condition.”
Biofuel Production Systems
Patent applications directed to biofuels production systems, and not necessarily directed to the starting materials or improving the process of a conventional system, are starting to appear again in the patent publication ledger. These applications are compelling, because they show a commercial willingness to revisit how biofuels are produced in general. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues into 2015.
US Patent Publication 20140329298,
Solid Waste Digestion System
(inventors: William Nicholas Hiatt, et al.; assignee: Ecologico-Logic, Inc.; November 6, 2014) describes a “system for digesting biodigestible feed that preferably includes the steps of comminuting the feed, introducing feed, an oxygen-containing gas, an accelerant, and bacteria into a digestion zone, the bacteria being suitable for digesting the feed under aerobic, anaerobic, and anoxic conditions. The contents of the digestion zone can be changed from aerobic operation to either anoxic or anaerobic operation, or vice versa, without changing the bacteria in the digestion zone.” The inventors believe there is “no known process that is suitable for both anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic processing of solid and liquid waste, where conditions of the processing can be changed ‘on the fly.’” It is desirable to quickly change from anaerobic to aerobic or from aerobic to anaerobic to control the output from the process depending on feed stock and desired output. This case is docketed and ready for examination with the USPTO.
US Patent Publication 20140329223,
Photobioreactors, Solar Energy Gathering Systems, And Thermal Control Methods
(inventors: Frederick M. Morgan, et al.; assignee: Joule Unlimited Technologies, Inc.; November 6, 2014) discloses “photobioreactors, solar energy gathering systems, and methods for thermal control of a culture medium containing a phototrophic organism in a photobioreactor, that allow temperature control in a cost effective manner, reducing the energy required for temperature control of a culture medium containing phototrophic microorganisms in a photobioreactor.” Specifically, “a photobioreactor comprising: (a) a reactor chamber for enclosing a phototrophic microorganism and culture medium therefore; (b) a heat energy system; and (c) thermal control layer; wherein at least part of the reactor chamber is transparent for light of a wavelength that is photosynthetically active in the phototrophic microorganism, and the reactor chamber and heat energy system are in controllable thermal contact, and the thermal control layer provides the controllable thermal contact. As used herein, “light of a wavelength that is photosynthetically active in the phototrophic microorganism” refers to light that can be utilized by the microorganism to grow and/or produce carbon-based products of interest, for example, fuels including biofuels. This patent application is docketed at the USPTO and ready for examination.
Biofuel Utilization
As with the section regarding production systems for biofuels, the utilization of biofuels is another interesting area that is resurfacing in some of the recent patent publication literature. It is not clear if this publication is an outlier in the group or if this may be a trend in 2015 patent publications.
US Patent Publication 20140322617,
Printed Biofuel Cells
(inventors: Joseph Wang, et al.; assignee: The Regents of the University of California; October 30, 2014) teaches and describes “methods, systems, and devices for implementing a biofuel cell device for extracting energy from a biofuel. In one aspect, a biofuel cell device includes a substrate, an anode including a catalyst to facilitate the conversion of a fuel in a biological fluid in an oxidative process that releases electrons captured at the anode, thereby extracting energy from the fuel substance, a cathode configured on the substrate adjacent to the anode and separated from the anode by a spacing region, and a load electrically coupled to the anode and cathode via electrical interconnects to obtain the extracted energy as electrical energy. In one aspect, a method to fabricate a biofuel cell includes depositing an electrically conductive ink on a substrate to form an anode electrode and a cathode electrode adjacent to and separated from one another, the depositing including printing the ink on a stencil placed over the substrate, the stencil including a patterned region configured in a design of the anode and the cathode to allow transfer of the ink on the substrate, and the stencil inhibiting transfer of the ink in areas outside the patterned region; and the method includes curing the electrically conductive ink to produce a biofuel cell device.” This application is undergoing pre-examination processing at the USPTO and has not yet been docketed for examination.
Process efficiency and starter materials patent applications are not declining in the second half of 2014, and it does not appear as though that will change in 2015. What is different about the second half of 2014 is the publication of several applications that disclose and claim biofuel production systems, as opposed to starter materials, and ways to utilize biofuels more efficiently. It will be interesting to see if these latter two areas of technology make an appearance in 2015. The next column in this series will focus on a review of the international published patent applications from 2014 and will look at worldwide trends for biofuels applications for 2015.
