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Evonik prevails in US patent litigation against Materia Inc.
FOCUS Original Source: Fuel Cells Bulletin, Jan 2017, 12 (Website: http://www.elsevierscitech.com/ nl/fcb/home.asp) © Elsevier Ltd 2017.
Renmatix receives $14 M investment Microsoft's co-founder and Total have coinvested $14 M in Renmatix, which has already secured over $140 M from BASF, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and other investors. The firm will utilize the funds to commercialize its Plantrose process for licensed biorefinery use in Canada, India, Malaysia, the US and others. The technology enables the conversion of plant biomass and waste into sugars and subsequently into bio-based chemicals and fuels.
Original Source: Plastics and Rubber Asia, Oct 2016, 31 (225), 4 (Website: http://www. plasticsandrubberasia.com) © Plastics & Rubber Asia Ltd 2016.
Cellana and Living Ink Enter into a joint development and offtake agreement for sustainable algae inks Cellana Inc, a leading developer of algae-based products for sustainable nutrition and energy applications, and Living Ink Technologies announced that they have signed a letter of intent for the joint development and commercialization of inks containing Cellana's renewable algae biomass. Living Ink's sustainable algae-derived ink is 100% plant-based, renewable and biodegradable. The majority of the ink is algae, turned into ink, and applied to paper. This novel ink will replace conventional ink that uses petroleum products and other finite chemicals, most of which are toxic.
Original Source: Cellana, 2017. Found on PR Newswire, 7 Feb 2017, (Website: http://www. prnewswire.com).
Process development: a new way to dehydrate gas ExxonMobil has developed and patented a new natural gas dehydration system called cMIST. The new technology can replace the conventional dehydration towers as it can reduce the surface footprint of a dehydration system by 70%. The new technology has been licensed to Chemtech, which will use the technology in the oil and gas sector.
Original Source: TCE (formerly The Chemical Engineer), Feb 2017, (908), 19 (Website: http://www.tcetoday.com) © Institution of Chemical Engineers 2017.
PATENTS Evonik prevails in US patent litigation against Materia Inc. Evonik Industries AG, Essen (Germany) with its Business Line Catalysts has won a seven
March 2017
ON
C ATA LY S T S
year long patent litigation in a jury trial in the Federal District Court in Wilmington, DE, US against Materia Inc, Pasadena, CA, US. After a 9-day trial, the jury confirmed the validity of Evonik's US patent 7,378,528 directed to olefin metathesis catalysts containing NHC (N-heterocyclic carbene) ligands. The court had earlier decided that 50 of Materia's catalysts infringe Evonik's '528 patent. The court also held previously that Evonik's catMETium RF metathesis catalyst products do not infringe Materia's US patent 7,622,590. Materia provided a worldwide covenant not to sue Evonik or its customers on any patent in Materia's '590 family. The jury awarded Evonik over $1.5 M which will be supplemented with interest for the entire period and additional royalties for the most recent financial periods for Materia's infringement.
Original Source: Evonik Industries, 1 Feb 2017, (Website: http://corporate.evonik.com/en/) © Evonik Industries AG 2017.
Membrane for use in a protonexchange membrane fuel-cell Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells Ltd (the UK), Universite Montpellier 2 and Centre National de la Recherde Scientifique (France) have been granted Patent No WO/ 2016/020668 (Publication date: 11 Feb 2016) for an electrolyte membrane made of a porous mat of nanofibres that possess a non-ionically conducting heterocyclic-based polymer. The polymer, which is soluble in an organic solvent, has basic functional groups. The membrane has ion-conducting polymer with partially- or fully-fluorinated sulfonic acid polymer. The porous mat has thickness distributed across at least 80% of the depth of the membrane and is impregnated with the ion-conducting polymer.
Original Source: Membrane Technology, Jan 2017, 12 (Website: http://www. membrane-technology.com) © Elsevier Ltd 2017.
ITC finds for BASF on battery materials The International Trade Commission (ITC) has discovered that Belgium's Umicore infringed patents of Argonne National Laboratory and BASF including nickelmanganese-cobalt battery cathode materials. Following the implementation of an ITC policy in Feb 2016, Umicore had continued marketing the materials to its battery. A further policy by a US district court will be needed to prevent imports of the materials. Umicore intend to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit about the allegations.
Original Source: Chemical and Engineering News, 2 Jan 2017, 95 (1), 12 (Website: http:// cen.acs.org/index.html) © American Chemical Society 2017.
BOOKSHELF Handbook of Spent Hydroprocessing Catalysts This book reviews the current processes for handling spent hydroprocessing catalysts, both regenerable and non-regenerable. It contains information on hazardous characteristics of spent and regenerated catalysts. The information forms a basis for determining processing options to make decisions on whether spent catalysts can be either reused on refinery site after regeneration or used as the source of new materials. For nonregenerable spent catalysts, attention is paid to safety and ecological implications of utilizing landfill and other waste handling and storage options to ensure environmental acceptance. This handbook can be used as a benchmark document to develop threshold limits of regulated chemical moities. The text includes testing protocols which serve as a basis for the development of methodologies for the characterization of solid wastes. It also presents a database, which should assist researchers in selecting/designing research projects on spent catalysts, i.e., regeneration vs. rejuvenation and metal reclamation. Finally, it contains solid waste management procedures specific to hydroprocessing catalysts that serve as a model for designing research projects for other solid waste challenges.
M. Marafi, A. Staniuslaus, and E. Furimsky, 2nd edn, March 2017, Elsevier, Amsterdam, ISBN-13:978-0444638816, 468 pp.
Advances in Refining Catalysts This book highlights recent developments in the application of refinery catalysts in selected units such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), hydrogen production for hydroprocessing units, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, and sustainable processing of biomass into biofuels.
D. Uner (ed), 1st edn, March 2017, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL USA, ISBN-13: 9781498729970, 416 pp.
Novel Catalytic and Separation Processes Based on Ionic Liquids This text provides an overview of the uses of ionic liquids (ILs) in catalytic and separation processes. The book discusses the preparation of ILs, the characterization of IL catalysts using spectroscopic techniques, reactions using IL catalysts, and separation science and technology using ILs. It also references applications of ionic liquids to biomass conversion and synthesis of fine chemicals. The book contains a description of the recent research and development activities focused on separation techniques and catalysis using ionic liquids. Importantly, the book describes catalytic reactions which use ionic liquids that produce higher yields and have higher selectivities than those obtained by typical chemical synthesis routes.
D. Ozokwelu, S. Zhang, O. Okafor, W. Cheng, 1st edn, March 2017, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 274 pp.
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Renmatix receives $14 M investment Microsoft's co-founder and Total have coinvested $14 M in Renmatix, which has already secured over $140 M from BASF, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and other investors. The firm will utilize the funds to commercialize its Plantrose process for licensed biorefinery use in Canada, India, Malaysia, the US and others. The technology enables the conversion of plant biomass and waste into sugars and subsequently into bio-based chemicals and fuels.
Original Source: Plastics and Rubber Asia, Oct 2016, 31 (225), 4 (Website: http://www. plasticsandrubberasia.com) © Plastics & Rubber Asia Ltd 2016.
Cellana and Living Ink Enter into a joint development and offtake agreement for sustainable algae inks Cellana Inc, a leading developer of algae-based products for sustainable nutrition and energy applications, and Living Ink Technologies announced that they have signed a letter of intent for the joint development and commercialization of inks containing Cellana's renewable algae biomass. Living Ink's sustainable algae-derived ink is 100% plant-based, renewable and biodegradable. The majority of the ink is algae, turned into ink, and applied to paper. This novel ink will replace conventional ink that uses petroleum products and other finite chemicals, most of which are toxic.
Original Source: Cellana, 2017. Found on PR Newswire, 7 Feb 2017, (Website: http://www. prnewswire.com).
Process development: a new way to dehydrate gas ExxonMobil has developed and patented a new natural gas dehydration system called cMIST. The new technology can replace the conventional dehydration towers as it can reduce the surface footprint of a dehydration system by 70%. The new technology has been licensed to Chemtech, which will use the technology in the oil and gas sector.
Original Source: TCE (formerly The Chemical Engineer), Feb 2017, (908), 19 (Website: http://www.tcetoday.com) © Institution of Chemical Engineers 2017.
PATENTS Evonik prevails in US patent litigation against Materia Inc. Evonik Industries AG, Essen (Germany) with its Business Line Catalysts has won a seven
March 2017
ON
C ATA LY S T S
year long patent litigation in a jury trial in the Federal District Court in Wilmington, DE, US against Materia Inc, Pasadena, CA, US. After a 9-day trial, the jury confirmed the validity of Evonik's US patent 7,378,528 directed to olefin metathesis catalysts containing NHC (N-heterocyclic carbene) ligands. The court had earlier decided that 50 of Materia's catalysts infringe Evonik's '528 patent. The court also held previously that Evonik's catMETium RF metathesis catalyst products do not infringe Materia's US patent 7,622,590. Materia provided a worldwide covenant not to sue Evonik or its customers on any patent in Materia's '590 family. The jury awarded Evonik over $1.5 M which will be supplemented with interest for the entire period and additional royalties for the most recent financial periods for Materia's infringement.
Original Source: Evonik Industries, 1 Feb 2017, (Website: http://corporate.evonik.com/en/) © Evonik Industries AG 2017.
Membrane for use in a protonexchange membrane fuel-cell Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells Ltd (the UK), Universite Montpellier 2 and Centre National de la Recherde Scientifique (France) have been granted Patent No WO/ 2016/020668 (Publication date: 11 Feb 2016) for an electrolyte membrane made of a porous mat of nanofibres that possess a non-ionically conducting heterocyclic-based polymer. The polymer, which is soluble in an organic solvent, has basic functional groups. The membrane has ion-conducting polymer with partially- or fully-fluorinated sulfonic acid polymer. The porous mat has thickness distributed across at least 80% of the depth of the membrane and is impregnated with the ion-conducting polymer.
Original Source: Membrane Technology, Jan 2017, 12 (Website: http://www. membrane-technology.com) © Elsevier Ltd 2017.
ITC finds for BASF on battery materials The International Trade Commission (ITC) has discovered that Belgium's Umicore infringed patents of Argonne National Laboratory and BASF including nickelmanganese-cobalt battery cathode materials. Following the implementation of an ITC policy in Feb 2016, Umicore had continued marketing the materials to its battery. A further policy by a US district court will be needed to prevent imports of the materials. Umicore intend to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit about the allegations.
Original Source: Chemical and Engineering News, 2 Jan 2017, 95 (1), 12 (Website: http:// cen.acs.org/index.html) © American Chemical Society 2017.
BOOKSHELF Handbook of Spent Hydroprocessing Catalysts This book reviews the current processes for handling spent hydroprocessing catalysts, both regenerable and non-regenerable. It contains information on hazardous characteristics of spent and regenerated catalysts. The information forms a basis for determining processing options to make decisions on whether spent catalysts can be either reused on refinery site after regeneration or used as the source of new materials. For nonregenerable spent catalysts, attention is paid to safety and ecological implications of utilizing landfill and other waste handling and storage options to ensure environmental acceptance. This handbook can be used as a benchmark document to develop threshold limits of regulated chemical moities. The text includes testing protocols which serve as a basis for the development of methodologies for the characterization of solid wastes. It also presents a database, which should assist researchers in selecting/designing research projects on spent catalysts, i.e., regeneration vs. rejuvenation and metal reclamation. Finally, it contains solid waste management procedures specific to hydroprocessing catalysts that serve as a model for designing research projects for other solid waste challenges.
M. Marafi, A. Staniuslaus, and E. Furimsky, 2nd edn, March 2017, Elsevier, Amsterdam, ISBN-13:978-0444638816, 468 pp.
Advances in Refining Catalysts This book highlights recent developments in the application of refinery catalysts in selected units such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), hydrogen production for hydroprocessing units, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, and sustainable processing of biomass into biofuels.
D. Uner (ed), 1st edn, March 2017, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL USA, ISBN-13: 9781498729970, 416 pp.
Novel Catalytic and Separation Processes Based on Ionic Liquids This text provides an overview of the uses of ionic liquids (ILs) in catalytic and separation processes. The book discusses the preparation of ILs, the characterization of IL catalysts using spectroscopic techniques, reactions using IL catalysts, and separation science and technology using ILs. It also references applications of ionic liquids to biomass conversion and synthesis of fine chemicals. The book contains a description of the recent research and development activities focused on separation techniques and catalysis using ionic liquids. Importantly, the book describes catalytic reactions which use ionic liquids that produce higher yields and have higher selectivities than those obtained by typical chemical synthesis routes.
D. Ozokwelu, S. Zhang, O. Okafor, W. Cheng, 1st edn, March 2017, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 274 pp.
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