PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15762764
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["210", "739000"]

Abstract:
A system and method for management of point source discharges (e.g., mining, pulp and paper, other industrial/municipal) characterized by elevated (e.g., >1,000 mg/L) Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) concentrations to achieve compliance with Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) requirements, where the aquatic toxicity is related to what is commonly referred to as TDS/ion imbalance, is disclosed. Concentrations of major inorganic ions in a water sample(s) that cause toxicity to aquatic organisms are analyzed to determine which of those cations and anions are deficient in the water sample(s); thereafter it is determined which ion-ratios in the sample(s) contribute to the toxicity to aquatic organisms; and thereafter it is determined which cations and anions to add to the water sample(s) to achieve compliance with aquatic toxicity regulations.

Claim (Index 11):
The method of  claim 9 , wherein predicting ion ratios critical to effluent aquatic toxicity based on imbalances of major ion ratios in the effluent; identifying balancing salts to decrease major ion ratio imbalances in the effluent of major ion ratios predicted to be critical to effluent aquatic toxicity; and quantifying the dosage of identified balancing salts to balance major ion ratios in the effluent of major ion ratios predicted to be critical to effluent aquatic toxicity is determined by:\n charting WET test results of test organisms vs. % concentration of major ions, molar concentration ratios of each ion pair, and other potential toxicants; determining \u201cgoodness of fit\u201d of the charted WET test results to sigmoid concentration-response curves, and discarding those charts that do not demonstrate a clear concentration-response relationship; thereafter determining ion deficiency by identifying non-discarded concentration-response curves that exhibit a positive slope on the respective chart of % toxicological response vs. ion concentration; thereafter ranking ion deficiency from most deficient ions to least deficient ions; determining metal toxicity by identifying concentration-response curves that have a negative slope on the respective chart of % toxicological response vs. metal concentration; determining ion-ratio toxicity by identifying concentration-response curves that have a negative slope on the respective chart of % toxicological response vs. ion-ratio when the deficient ion is in the denominator of the ratio; ranking ion-ratio toxicity from most toxic ion-ratio to least toxic ion-ratio; determining, for each toxic ion-ratio chart, the \u201cThreshold of Impairment,\u201d wherein the Threshold of Impairment comprises the ion-ratio at which a decrease in the toxicological response is first observed; normalizing each ion-ratio by dividing the measured ion-ratio by the respective Threshold of Impairment, wherein a normalized ion-ratio of >1 signifies impairment due to that ion-ratio and a normalized ion-ratio of \u22641 signifies no impairment due to that ion-ratio; identifying ion-ratios that are critical to the toxicity of the effluent, wherein the critical ion-ratios comprise numerically higher normalized ion-ratios; determining, for the ion-ratios that are identified as most critical to the toxicity of the effluent, the amounts of ions required to reduce the most limiting ion-ratio to unity, without adding a counter-ion that would increase other normalized ion-ratios to >1; determining appropriate balancing salts to achieve balanced ion-ratios with the ions that are critical to the toxicity of the effluent, wherein the appropriate balancing salts contribute deficient ions, decrease the critical normalized ion ratios to \u22641, and create no new normalized ion ratios with a value >1; calculating the amount of appropriate balancing salts to be added to the effluent; and confirming that addition of the appropriate balancing salts will not cause other imbalances in the ion-ratios possible from the pairing of the major ions.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 4.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.90123
- Patent Class: 210.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14082654', '15659608', '15481599', '12527325', '14764756']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7885424057830532
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.483339660481356
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7580221312528836
- Mean Citation Score: 155.96036
- Max Citation Score: 160.81525
- Similarity Product: 105.4065834827721

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test