Archive
UNCONVENTIONAL OIL. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Waste processing
Summary
Unconventional oil is a term used for hydrocarbons that are produced using techniques other than traditional vertical well extraction. The distinction stems from its position underground or from the unusual nature of the reservoirs where this kind of oil is found. These reservoirs require the use of new and often very complex extraction methods. The most common forms of unconventional oil are, among others, tight oil, heavy and extra-heavy oil, oil shale, shale oil, and oil sands. During production, several waste products are formed which need to be adequately utilised. There is a general trend towards recycling and reusing oil and gas wastewater at well pads in order to make the production process more sustainable. Reuse of production wastewater, however, in part depends on the level of pollutants in the wastewater and the proximity of other fracturing sites. Solid waste, on the other hand, is often simply disposed of at landfills. Underground injection is a very common method of managing fluids or other substances from unconventional oil operations. In some cases operators may also employ surface storage tanks and pits to temporarily store operation fluids, especially hydraulic fracturing fluids, for re-use or until they can be safely disposed of. The patents presented in this bulletin try to overcome some of the aforementioned problems.
A selection of patents related to waste management in unconventional oil operations and published by patent offices around the globe in 2016-2018 is provided for review in the present bulletin. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 311 patents, prepared by applicants from 16 countries and registered in 18 patent offices. The patent documents mention 185 applicants and 532 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 granted the largest number of patents were USPTO (US), CIPO (CA) and IP Australia (AU).
From the analysis of texts of patents 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 patents 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 patents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators. Representatives of the United States prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time, including: Xyleco Inc. (US), ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (US), Suncor Energy (CA), Syncrude Canada Limited (CA), Ecolab (US), Axens (FR), Total Raffinage Marketing (FR), ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (US), Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC (US), Soane Mining LLC (US).
The top prominent documents section includes three lists of the top 10 patents having the highest bibliographical rating, the largest number 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 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 waste management technologies in unconventional oil production.
