Archive
BIOENERGY. Latest published applications 2015-2017. Biomass Gasification
Summary
Biomass gasification is a well-developed process to transform solid fuel into a producer gas. The gasification agent can consist of air, steam or oxygen. As a result of gasification, a generator gas is formed consisting of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, as well as other gases and substances, including nitrogen, methane, water and ash. The producer gas can be turned into useful fuels and other products. However, biomass gasification involves several challenges which need to be overcome to receive a suitable final product. The main issue concerning biomass gasification is to generate a pure producer gas so as to inhibit the formation and accumulation of tar and particulates in the internal combustion engines which have high purity requirements regarding the generator gas. If the gas contains a high amount of tar or other residues, the lifespan of the combustion engine decreases, and frequent maintenance is necessary. The most important environmental challenge is that the condensates contain pollutants such as tar, phenol and other remains of the combustion process. The amount of pollutants and their composition largely depend on the fuel produced as well as the reactor type and the gas cleaning system used. The patents presented in this bulletin try to overcome some of the aforementioned issues.
A selection of patent applications related to biomass gasification and published by patent offices around the globe in 2015-2017 is provided for review in the present bulletin. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 998 patent applications, prepared by applicants from 31 countries and registered in 42 patent offices. The patent documents mention 398 applicants and 712 IPC subgroups.
Key Highlights
The bulletin provides general statistical figures, including the overall 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 most popular patent offices among the applicants were: USPTO (US), CNIPA (CN), WIPO, INPI (BR), EPO, JPO (JP), CIPO (CA), IP Australia (AU), IP India (IN), KIPO (KR), Rospatent (RU).
Based on the analysis of each of the patent applications, internal characteristics of unified indicators (technical problems, types of inventive solutions, belonging to one or other technological segment) were found, which allowed specific features for each of the indicators for the entire array of documents to be defined, for instance, to define the leading problems or technical solution types that were disclosed by the inventors the most. Document lists are provided for the ten most popular groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators, including their ID numbers and applicant names.
The following information can be found for the top 10 applicants: breakdown of applications by problems, IPC sections, patent offices, technological indicators, as well as the estimation of their share in the established intellectual property market. The 10 leading applicants by the number of patent documents were: Wuhan Kaidi Engineering Technology Research General Institute Co., Ltd. (CN), Linde AG (DE), General Electric (US), PHG Energy LLC (US), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (FR), Stichting Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland (NL), Alter NRG Corp. (CA), Air Liquide (FR), EcoGensus LLC (US), ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG (DE).
The prominent documents pages contain the top 10 patent applications with the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and those not being a part 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 registered patent applications are provided in the conclusive part of the bulletin.
Who needs this bulletin?
The proposed patent statistics bulletin allows the existing trends in the intellectual property market of the specified industrial sector to be timely traced, as well as the possibility of acquiring a carefully selected list of patent documents fully corresponding to the specified subject. The bulletin can be useful for inventors, engineers, scientific workers, and business representatives, who are focused on biomass gasification production technologies.
