Green Patent Blog®

Sundrop Fuels (Sundrop) is a Colorado company that combines concentrated solar power (CSP) technology with biofuels production processes. 

While most biomass-to-biofuels systems burn the feedstocks as the first step in biofuel production, Sundrop uses concentrated solar energy to gasify the feedstocks into syngas that is made into advanced biofuels.  According to the company’s web site, the very high temperatures of CSP create efficiencies in the process:

At the center of the Sundrop Fuels process is our proprietary Surroundsun™ technology, a solar-thermal biomass gasifier that generates temperatures of more than 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,370 degrees Fahrenheit) from the concentrated power of thousands of solar heliostat mirrors.  Using solar energy to drive the endothermic gasification reaction ensures the most efficient use of biomass feedstock to produce liquid advanced biofuels like renewable “green” gasoline.

Sundrop owns at least one U.S. patent and two pending U.S. patent applications relating to its solar gasification technology.   

U.S. Patent No. 7,140,181 (’181 Patent), is entitled “Reactor for solar processing of slightly-absorbing or transparent gases” and is directed to methods for solar powered processing of gases.

The methods described in the ‘181 Patent comprise directing concentrated sunlight through an aperture (202) into a spherical chamber (203), where the energy is partially absorbed by the walls (201) of the chamber and partially reflected. 

Process gas is pumped into the chamber (203) through the aperture (202) and heated by contact with the walls (201) and by infrared radiation from the walls so the gas partially dissociates. 

The gas exits through exit holes (204) and is quickly cooled by its contact with cooling surface (205) to prevent recombination.  It then flows out exhaust tube (206).

Sundrop’s two published patent applications are U.S. Application Pub. No. 2009/0313886, entitled ”Various methods and apparatus for solar assisted chemical and energy processes” (’886 Application) and U.S. Application Pub. No. 2010/0000874, entitled “Various methods and apparatus for solar assisted fuel production” (’874 Application).

The ‘886 and ‘874 Applications are directed to solar assisted water splitting processes and apparatus to supply synthesis gas for creating a hydrocarbon liquid fuel.  A watter splitter (102) supplies H2 gas to a reverse water gas shift (RWGS) unit (104) that generates synthesis gas for production of liquid fuel such as methanol.   

The RWGS unit (104) includes a  reverse water gas shift reactor (106) and a liquid fuel synthesis reactor (108) that forms methanol from carbon dioxide hydrogenation. 

A field of heliostats (134), or sun tracking mirrors, reflects sunlight onto the heat exchanger (122) through window (138) in the RWGS unit (104).  The solar energy drives the water splitting process.

According to this Ecogeek piece, by using concentrated solar energy Sundrop’s process more than doubles the yield of fuel that can be produced using ordinary biomass burning processes to 100-125 gallons of fuel per ton of biomass.

Last month Verenium announced that BP Biofuels North America would acquire its cellulosic biofuels business for $98.3 million.  

Verenium will retain its commercial enzyme business and maintain rights to its biofuels enzyme products.  In addition, it will have the right to access select biofuels technology that BP develops using the acquired technology and to develop its own cellulosic enzyme program.

The purchase includes Verenium’s  pilot plant and demo-scale facility in Jennings, Louisiana and its R&D facilities in San Diego.

As to intellectual property assets, the Verenium press release says that BP will acquire Verenium’s “cellulosic biofuels technology and related IP” and “cellulosic enzyme technology and related IP.”

It has not been made public which of Verenium’s at least 28 U.S. patents, 23 pending U.S. patent applications and 28 international patent applications are part of the acquisition.  

A search for Verenium’s U.S. patents that contain the terms “cellulosic”, “ethanol” and “enzyme” may provide a hint in the eight hits it yields:  U.S. Patent Nos. 7,741,089, 7,592,434, 7,547,534, 7,504,120, 7,452,706, 7,432,098, 7,432,097 and 7,416,874.  Though some of these patents describe other industrial applications, several relate to phytases or xylanases, enzymes that are useful in ethanol production.

According to this BNET piece, this deal is good for Verenium because it allows the company to sell off the cellulosic ethanol unit that has been losing money and focus on its revenue-generating commercial enzyme business.

In recent years, the two companies have been collaborating on cellulosic ethanol development in two joint ventures called Galaxy Biofuels and Vercipia Biofuels.

A previous post discussed GreenShift Corporation’s (GreenShift) volley of recent patent suits against a host of ethanol producers across the midwestern United States. 

In those lawsuits GreenShift accused various ethanol producers of infringing U.S. Patent No. 7,601,858 (’858 Patent), entitled “Method of processing ethanol byproducts and related subsystems.” 

Last month GreenShift added another infringement action to the mix when it sued an Illinois company called Adkins Energy, which runs an ethanol production facility.  The complaint (gs-adkins_complaint.pdf) was filed in the Northern District of Illinois and accuses Adkins of infringing the ‘858 Patent.

The ‘858 Patent is directed to methods of recovering oil from byproducts of ethanol production using the process of dry milling, which creates a waste stream comprised of byproducts called whole stillage.

According to the ‘858 Patent, whole stillage contains valuable oil but prior processes for recovering this oil have been expensive or inefficient.

GS’s patented method includes mechanically separating the whole stillage into distillers wet grains and thin stillage and then running the thin stillage into an evaporator to form a concentrated byproduct, or syrup.  The syrup is fed through a second centrifuge, which separates usable corn oil from the syrup.

This latest complaint brings the total to at least ten patent infringement actions brought by GreenShift, all involving allegations of infringing the ‘858 Patent. 

Defendants in the other cases include Cardinal Ethanol, Big River Resources Galva, Amaizing Energy Atlantic, Center Ethanol, Bushmills Ethanol, United Wisconsin Grain Producers, Blue Flint Ethanol and Iroquois Bio-Energy.

Novozymes is a Danish biopharmaceutical company that develops enzymes for a variety of applications, including for use in production of biofuels.

The ink had barely dried on the company’s newly-issued U.S. Patent No. 7,713,723 (’723 Patent) when Novozymes sued its Danish rival Danisco, along with Genencor International Wisconsin, for patent infringement.

The ‘723 Patent is entitled “Alpha amylase mutants with altered properties” and is directed to variants of certain alpha amylases that exhibit altered stability under high temperatures, low pH and other conditions.  The patented variants can be used for starch conversion in ethanol production.

According to the complaint (novozymes_complaint.pdf), filed in the Western District of Wisconsin, the defendants are infringing the ‘723 Patent by selling alpha amylase enzymes including Danisco’s GC358 product.

This is not the first time these Danish rivals have litigated a patent relating to enzymes for ethanol production.  In 2007, Danisco paid Novozymes $15.3 million to settle a lawsuit involving alleged infringement of a patent for the enzyme spezyme ethyl.

Perhaps it’s too early to call it a trend.  But clean technology companies have begun to use the fast tracking procedure offered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Green Technology Pilot Program for PR purposes. 

Last month, GreenShift Corporation (GreenShift), a New York company that develops processes for ethanol production, announced that one of its patent applications was accepted into the program.  A little research indicates that the lucky application is Application Publication No. 2008/0299632 (’632 Application).

The ‘632 Application is entitled “Methods for recovering oil from a fractionated dry milling process” and is directed to methods for recovering oil from fthin stillage produced in a fractionation-based dry milling process.  The invention enables recovery of oil from byproducts created during corn ethanol production.

David Winsness, GreenShift’s CTO and a named co-inventor on the ‘632 Application, said the company is “pleased that one of our pending applications has been accepted into this important and timely program” and is looking forward to “additional opportunities to deliver our clients the powerful cost advantages made possible by our patented technologies.”

If the ‘632 Application issues as a patent in the near future, it might join U.S. Patent No. 7,601,858 in GreenShift’s recently expanded slate of patent infringement suits against a number of different ethanol producers.

Similarly, Silicon Valley concentrating PV company Skyline Solar (Skyline) recently announced that the USPTO granted U.S. Patent No. 7,709,730 (’730 Patent) after expedited examination via the Green Technology Pilot Program. 

The ‘730 Patent is entitled “Dual trough concentrating solar photovoltaic module” and is directed to a solar energy collector having a dual trough design.  The collector (100) has two optical apertures (101a, 101b) that admit sunlight onto reflector panels (106).

Each of two adjacent reflector troughs (120a, 120b) has a base (124a, 124b) and a pair of reflective side walls formed from the reflector panels (106).

Skyline markets the patented technology as High Gain Solar (HGS) architecture, and the press release says HGS packs more power and is easier to deploy than traditional flat panel CPV systems:

Skyline’s HGS architecture delivers ten times more energy per gram of silicon versus traditional flat-panel systems in sunny locations and offers industry-leading energy density.  Skyline HGS arrays combine industry-proven silicon cells, durable reflector materials and single-axis tracking into a complete, easy-to-deploy system.

According to its press release, Skyline is “one of the first companies to receive patent approval under the USPTO’s Green Technology Pilot Program.” 

It certainly won’t be the last.  With the USPTO recently loosening up the eligibility requirements for the Green Technology Pilot Program, there should be many more applications accepted into the program, more patents granted as a result and more green patent PR surrounding the success stories.