Archive
BIOENERGY. Latest published applications 2015-2017. Raw material preparation and feed
Summary
Efficient biomass production depends on two parameters which are mainly responsible for the quality of the final product and the sustainability of the production process: pre-treatment of the feedstock and feeding systems. Pre-treatment of biomass for further conversion into energy products is one of the most difficult steps in the entire processing chain, as the proper pre-treatment of the feed guarantees the stability of the main processes. Most of the time, some form of mechanical treatment (size reduction, densification, milling, etc.), drying or sorting is applied. For many types of feedstock additional treatment, such as pelletisation or fractionation, is also required. Biomass production processes also use modern feeding systems which should employ a reliable and safe technology, be flexible, and suitable for fully-automated processes. Some of the problems which can negatively impact the quality of the final product concern particle size variations or low densities, explosion or fire risk, or the consistent monitoring of biomass quality, etc. The applications discussed in this bulletin try to address some of these issues.
A selection of patent applications related to raw material preparation and feed 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 review includes 2654 patent applications, prepared by the applicants from 47 countries of the world and registered in 48 patent offices. 1097 applicants and 1226 IPC subgroups are mentioned in the patent documents.
Key Highlights
Statistical information presented in the bulletin includes distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), and data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The largest number of applications during the period of time under revision was registered by the patent office of China.
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: Xyleco Inc. (US), DSM IP Assets B.V. (NL), Solazyme, Inc. (US), Inbicon A/S (DK), IFP (École Nationale Supérieure du Pétrole et des Moteurs) (FR), Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. (NL), API Intellectual Property Holdings LLC (US), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) (AU), Proteus (FR), Clariant International AG (CH).
The top prominent documents section includes three lists of the top 10 patent applications having the highest bibliographical rating, the largest number of IPC sections, and those not being a part of patent family.
The conclusive part of the bulletin represents the lists 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.
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 the development of raw material and feed preparation technologies.
