Archive
COAL SEAM METHANE. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Coal bed methane
Summary
Coalbed methane (CBM), also called coalbed gas, is a form of natural gas produced from coal beds. In recent decades it has gained importance as a source of energy in the United States, Canada, Australia, China, and other countries. During the coalification process, the decomposing organic material produces methane gas, as well as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other gases. This gas is “sweet” not “sour” as it does not contain hydrogen sulphide. CBM is extracted by drilling a well into a coal seam and applying similar techniques used for other natural gas wells. The sides of the well are "cased" with a cemented steel pipe and perforations made in the wall of the casing to let the CBM flow through into the well bore. In some cases the coal seams need to be stimulated or "fractured" with hydraulic fracturing. Some of the primary concerns of the production process include overpressure of gas/water kicks during drilling, high permeability which may cause loss of circulation fluid, formation damage due to the nature of coal, hole sloughing as well as excessive water flow. There are also environmental issues which cannot be ignored such as land disturbance from the high density of wells, water impacts associated with the de-watering of coal seams, venting and prolonged flaring of non-economic gas. The patents discussed in this bulletin try to address some of these issues.
The proposed bulletin is dedicated to coal bed methane production and includes patents published in 2016-2018. Research methodology is available on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The patent bulletin includes 901 patent documents. The patents were granted in 21 patent offices around the world. 463 applicants from 22 countries participated in the development of the inventions. 978 subgroups of the International Patent Classification were encountered 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 patents during the period of time under revision was granted by the patent office of China.
Based on the analysis of each of the patents, 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.
A list of the top 10 applicants by the number of patents includes ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (US), Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. (US), Oren Technologies, LLC (US), CUMT China University of Mining and Technology (CN), Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. (NL), Baker Hughes Incorporated (US), ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc. (US), Johnson Matthey Plc (GB), PetroChina Company Limited (CN), Shell Oil Company (US). Data representing the share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of patents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators is provided in the form of tables and diagrams for them.
The prominent documents pages contain the top 10 patents with the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and the shortest patent pending time.
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 granted patents is 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 the development of coalbed methane production technologies.
