Archive
BIOENERGY. Latest published applications 2017-2019. Methods of control and diagnostics
Summary
It has become increasingly clear that biofuels can be a viable source of renewable energy. Bio-fuel production usually involves generating a synthesis gas (syngas) derived from the gasification of carbonaceous materials, from partial oxidation or reforming of biogas produced from anaerobic digestion or landfill gas or off-gas streams of various industrial methods. The feedstock can also include non-food crops, photosynthetic bacteria, micro- and macroalgae, and vascular land plants. There are, however, several problems involved in the sustainable production of biofuels. Some of these issues hail from technical barriers due to the lack of standards on bioenergy systems and equipment, especially where the feedstock is diverse concerning e.g. purity and size. Accordingly, some of the problems mentioned most frequently in the patents include the low efficiency of main processes, the high costs of equipment and production, as well as the poor performance of equipment. Therefore, effective methods of control and diagnostics are indispensable for any form of biomass processing, such as gasification or ethanol, bio-diesel and biogas production. They are particularly important when it comes to determining the quality of the feedstock, in primary processing and finishing treatment of the product (purification, distillation, dehydration…). The applications presented in this bulletin are aimed at solving some of the above-mentioned problems.
A selection of patent applications related to methods of control and diagnostics and published by patent offices around the globe in 2017-2019 is provided for review in the present bulletin. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 735 patent applications, prepared by applicants from 34 countries and registered in 33 patent offices. The patent documents mention 420 applicants and 646 IPC subgroups.
Key Highlights
The bulletin contains statistical data on the distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The top three patent offices that registered the largest number of patent applications were CNIPA (CN), USPTO (US) and WIPO.
From the analysis of texts of patent applications presented in this bulletin, detailed information is extracted for each of the unified indicators, which include: technical problems, types of inventive solutions employed, belonging of a patent document to one or other technological segment. The results of the statistical processing of this data for the entire array of the patent applications examined are summarized in the correspondingly-named diagrams and tables. In addition to that, a list of the top 10 groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators is provided, where the groups are sorted by the number of patent documents and include ID numbers and applicant names of the documents.
Data is provided for each of the top 10 applicants, leading in terms of the number of published patent documents among the ones examined in the bulletin, illustrating their share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of applications by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators. Representatives of the USA prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time, including: Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc (US), Loci Controls Inc. (US), Endress+Hauser Flowtec Ag (CH), Ineos Bio SA (CH), Licella Pty Ltd (AU), Canfor Pulp Ltd (CA), SGT Sustainable Green Technologies Ltd (IL), Carbon Sink Inc (US), Mustang Sampling LLC (US), Paques BV (NL).
The bulletin contains lists of the top 10 prominent patent applications having the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and those not being part a of patent family.
A list of all of the documents reviewed, arranged by the top 10 groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators and by patent offices with the indication of the ID numbers of the registered patent applications are provided in the conclusive part of the bulletin.
Who needs this bulletin?
The data provided in the proposed bulletin is a timely reflection of the transformations that take place in the intellectual property sector of the industrial direction concerned. A thoroughly edited selection of patent documents can become a good complement to your library of available technical solutions. The bulletin is targeted at inventors, engineers, researchers, managers and business administrators involved in the development of bioenergy production technologies.
