KiOR Inc (KIORQ)

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Moved to March 19th ..but02/20/2015 | 07:21am US/Eastern

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews journalists, a patent by the inventor Lin, Ronny W. (Sugar Land, TX), filed on July 13, 2010, was published online on February 10, 2015.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 8952210, is KiOR, Inc. (Pasadena, TX).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "The present invention relates generally to the treatment of bio-oil. More specifically, the invention concerns processes and apparatuses for removing undesirable solid components from bio-oil.

"With its low cost and wide availability, biomass has increasingly been emphasized as an ideal feedstock in alternative fuel research. Consequently, many different conversion processes have been developed that use biomass as a feedstock to produce useful biofuels and/or specialty chemicals. Existing biomass conversion processes include, for example, combustion, gasification, slow pyrolysis, fast pyrolysis, liquefaction, and enzymatic conversion.

"Many of the existing biomass conversion processes produce bio-oils containing small residual solid particles. Such bio-oils may require filtration in order to remove these residual solid particles. Since the residual solids often contain fine particles of less than 30 microns in size, fine-scale filters are required. Most filters capable of removing residual solids from bio-oil are rapidly clogged by gelatinous-type solids found in bio-oil. This rapid clogging can cause residual solids filtration methods to be expensive and challenging to scale up.

"Accordingly, there is a need for an improved and 'green' process and system for removing residual solids from bio-oil."

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent: "In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a bio-oil treatment process comprising the steps of (a) coating a porous filter element with particles of a biomass filter aid to thereby provide a coated filter element and (b) passing an initial bio-oil having a liquid phase and residual solids through the coated filter element. During step (b), a substantial portion of the residual solids are retained by the coated filter element, while substantially all of the liquid phase passes through the coated filter element to provide a filtered bio-oil.

"In another embodiment, the present invention is directed to a bio-oil treatment process comprising the steps of (a) combining particles of a biomass filter aid with an initial bio-oil having a liquid phase and residual solids to thereby provide a pre-filter mixture and (b) passing the pre-filter mixture through a filter element so that a substantial portion of the residual solids and biomass filter aid are retained by the filter element, while substantially all of the liquid phase passes through the filter element to provide a filtered bio-oil.

"In a further embodiment, the present invention is directed to a biomass conversion system comprising a biomass feedstock source for providing solid particulate biomass, a splitter coupled to the biomass feedstock source that is operable to split the solid particulate biomass into a biomass feedstock fraction and a biomass filter aid fraction, a conversion reactor for thermally converting the biomass feedstock fraction into an initial conversion product, a residual solids separator for removing residual solids from at least a portion of the initial conversion product, a biomass feed system for transporting the biomass feedstock fraction from the splitter to the conversion reactor, and a biomass filter aid transport mechanism for transporting the biomass filter aid from the splitter to the residual solids separator.

"Using biomass as a green filter aid makes it feasible to recycle the spent biomass filter aid for bio-oil production and/or as a combustion heat resource instead of waste disposal as with a conventional filter aid."

For more information, see this patent: Lin, Ronny W.. Solids Removal from Bio-Oil Using Biomass Filter Aid. U.S. Patent Number 8952210, filed July 13, 2010, and published online on February 10, 2015. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8952210.PN.&OS=PN/8952210RS=PN/8952210

Keywords for this news article include: KiOR Inc.

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