Green Patent Blog®

Carbon Sciences is a Santa Barbara, California company that has developed a proprietary process to recycle carbon dioxide emissions into gasoline and other liquid fuels.

The company breaks down CO2 and extracts the carbon atoms to make new hydrocarbon chains.  According to its web site, Carbon Sciences’ process requires less energy and is more scalable than previous known techniques, which used expensive inorganic catalysts.

The key to the process is a multi-step biocatalysis that uses organic biocatalysts.  The company’s biocatalytic method uses inexpensive, renewable biomolecules to catalyze certain chemical reactions required to transform CO2 and water into fuel molecules.

Through nano-engineering of the biocatalysts and efficient process design, Carbon Sciences can operate these catalysis steps on a large industrial scale.  In particular, the company’s smart particle technology provides improved encapsulation of the enzymes that prolongs their effective lives and allows them to perform many reaction cycles.

The major components of the process are a CO2 Flue Gas Processor, a a Biocatalyst Unit, a Biocatalytic Reactor Matrix, a Filtration system and a conversion and polishing unit.

The Biocatalytic Reactor Matrix is the heart of the process.  It is here, in a matrix of liquid reaction chambers, that the large quantities of biocatalysts perform the multi-stage breakdown of CO2 and transformation to hydrocarbons.

The company’s CEO, Byron Elton, told me that Carbon Sciences has filed four as yet unpublished patent applications directed to its CO2 recycling process.  Elton expects the company to file 4-6 more new patent applications this year. 

Carbon Sciences owns U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0277319 (’319 Application), entitled “Fine particle carbon dioxide transformation and sequestration.”  According to Elton, the ‘319 Application covers the company’s initial forays into carbon capture and sequestration.

The ‘319 Application is directed to methods and systems for breaking down carbon dioxide into micron- or sub-micron-sized particles, classifying or separating out the particles of a desired size and reacting those particles to form mineral carbonates.

Carbon Sciences’ technology extends into several aspects of CO2 capture, sequestration and recycling, including advanced chemical processes that can use flue gas and brackish water to capture CO2 emissions and scrub it to yield pure CO2.

Because the market for gasoline and liquid fuels is likely to remain quite large for some time, Carbon Sciences’ recycling process provides an interim carbon mitigation option:  use the CO2 molecule twice.

eSolar is a Pasadena, California solar thermal startup that makes solar power plants using flat mirrors, or heliostats, to concentrate sunlight onto a centrally located water tank suspended on a tower.  This type of structure is known as “power tower” architecture.

Founded in 2007, eSolar has seen very rapid success in business deals to implement and deploy its technology.  The latest, which is the biggest solar thermal deal ever, is a master licensing agreement with Chinese electrical power equipment manufacturer Penglai Electric (Penglai).

Penglai will develop at least 2 gigawatts of solar thermal power plants in China over the next 10 years using eSolar’s technology.

eSolar owns at least four published U.S. patent applications and at least half a dozen international applications relating to its solar thermal technology.  U.S. Patent Applications Pub. Nos. 2009/0241938 and 2009/0241939 are directed to solar receivers and U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2009/0107485 is directed to calibration and tracking control systems for heliostats. 

According to the technology description on eSolar’s web site, its cost-effective utility scale power plant is “based on mass-manufactured components and designed for rapid construction, uniform modularity, and unlimited scalability.”  The company’s heliostat is the “building block” of its power plants and is designed for deployment in pre-fabricated “heliostat sticks” for easy installation.

One factor that affects the efficiency of power tower plants is the positioning of the heliostats relative to the tower and to each other.  eSolar’s “modular field” of concentrating mirrors consists of thousands of systematically spaced heliostats arranged to optimize the layout and maximize efficiency. 

U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2009/0133685 (’685 Application) is directed to eSolar’s heliostat array layouts.  Some embodiments of the ‘685 Application comprise three segments (128) with each segment divided into two variably spaced heliostat zones (128a, 128b).

Heliostats (328a) in the first zone (128a) are spaced closer together than heliostats (328b) in the second zone (128b).  The heliostat locations are also staggered with respect to heliostat locations in adjacent rows.  A thermal receiver (228) is mounted on a central power tower.

Last year, eSolar entered into a similar deal with an Indian partner, ACME Group (ACME), to build solar thermal plants generating up to 1 gigawatt of power in India.  ACME is the exclusive licensee of eSolar’s technology in India.

eSolar’s success in deploying its solar thermal technology in emerging markets such as India and China belies claims by those countries and other developing nations that IP rights are acting as a barrier to transfer of clean technologies (see China View article here and my previous post here). 

Various proposals to weaken or eliminate IP rights, including compulsory licensing and even excluding green technologies from patent protection, have been put forth by India, China and other emerging market and developing countries and were contained in the official UNFCCC negotiating text for the Copenhagen meetings in December.

However, eSolar’s success in finding willing partners in India and China may actually be driven, at least in part, by intellectual property protection:  it’s hard to imagine Penglai or ACME investing in such large scale projects without the exclusivity in their home markets guaranteed by the master license agreements.

eSolar’s China deal was announced in early January.  It’s interesting that while climate change treaty negotiators were discussing IP as a barrier to international clean tech transfer eSolar and Penglai were probably finalizing the terms of the master license agreement that would be part of the largest ever transfer and deployment of solar thermal technology to China.

David Kappos, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), recently authored a guest column for Law360 in which he discussed the role of the USPTO and green patents in addressing climate change.

The piece, entitled “Patents Key to Fighting Climate Change,” reads like a mini-state of the union address for the USPTO and green technology.  In it, Kappos stresses the important role that the patent system plays in fostering clean tech innovation and touts USPTO initiatives relating to green technologies.

The article cites the following USPTO green technology programs:

the Green Technology Pilot Program that allows accelerated examination of patent applications relating to environmental quality, energy conservation, renewable energy resources or greenhouse gas emissions reduction (see my post about this program here)

an initiative to generate empirical data on the relationship between patents and international tech transfer

research on green technology innovation and diffusion in  China

development of a green technology web site to link inventors who want to license their their inventions with companies that want to develop them;

development of IP policies for R&D collaborations between the U.S. and other countries such as India and China

Mr. Kappos says that all of the initiatives are based upon a “deep understanding that timely and properly issued patents foster green technology innovation and promote widespread access to the benefits of such innovation.” 

According to Kappos:

the United States Patent and Trademark Office is committed to doing its part to ensure that the patent system fosters and incentivizes the creation, development and diffusion of green technology.

Mitsubishi has pulled off a come-from-behind victory in a wind turbine patent case against General Electric (GE) in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). 

In a Notice issued on January 8th, the ITC terminated its investigation of GE’s complaint and found Mitsubishi did not violate any claims of the three patents asserted by GE.

GE filed the complaint in March of 2008, accusing Mitsubishi of infringing certain claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,083,039 (’039 Patent) and 6,921,985 (’985 Patent).  GE later amended the complaint to include U.S. Patent No. 7,321,221 (’221 Patent). 

The ‘039 Patent is entitled “Variable speed wind turbine” and is directed to a variable speed turbine that provides responsive control of generator torque. 

The ‘985 Patent is entitled “Low voltage ride through for wind turbine generators” and is directed to a wind turbine that includes a blade pitch control system and a turbine controller coupled with the blade pitch control system. 

The ‘221 Patent is entitled “Method for operating a wind power plant and method for operating it” and is directed to improved methods for stabilizing the supply voltage to a wind turbine after voltage drops without jeopardizing the electrical components of the turbine.  

A more detailed discussion of the asserted patents can be found in my previous post on the federal court case between GE and Mitsubishi here.

The ITC decision to let Mitsubishi off the hook reversed an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) ruling in August of last year that Mitsubishi had violated the ‘039 and ‘985 Patents. 

Shortly after the ALJ decision, an ITC investigative attorney filed a petition with the ITC commissioners questioning certain infringement findings and raising concerns about whether GE met the domestic industry requirement of Section 337.

The Notice of Termination clears the way for Mitsubishi to assemble its imported turbine components and build a $100 million wind power plant in Forth Smith, Arkansas.

The Computer and High Technology Law Journal (CHTLJ) at Santa Clara University School of Law is hosting a symposium next week on legal issues in clean technology, including a panel discussion on international IP issues.

The event will be held on Friday, January 29, 2010 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, and California MCLE credit is available for those who attend.

The event is entitled “The Clean Technology Revolution:  Developing Solutions for Tomorrow’s Legal Challenges” and consists of four panel sessions, including a discussion with in-house counsel and venture capitalists about the issues affecting their businesses, legal issues raised by the smart grid, issues in international IP and technology transfer, and the impact of government regulation and access to government funding. 

The keynote speaker will be Paul Dickerson, former COO of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and current partner at the Haynes and Boone law firm.

I will be participating in the panel session on international IP issues along with Todd R. Miller of Jones Day, Cal - Berkeley Economics Professor Bronwyn Hall and Santa Clara Law Professor Colleen Chien.

More about the symposium and registration info are available online at the CHTLJ web site here.