PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15943691
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2019-10
Patent Classification: ["422", "187000"]

Abstract:
The machinery and methods disclosed herein are based on the use of a specialized extruder configured to continuously convey and plasticize/moltenize selected lignocellulosic biomass and/or waste plastic materials into a novel variable volume tubular reactor, wherein the plasticized/moltenized material undergoes reaction with circumferentially injected supercritical water—thereby yielding valuable simple sugar solutions and/or liquid hydrocarbon mixtures (e.g., “neodiesel”), both of which are key chemical commodity products. The reaction time may be adjusted by changing the reactor volume. The machinery includes four zones: (1) a feedstock conveyance and plasticization/moltenization zone; (2) a steam generation and manifold distribution zone; (3) a central supercritical water reaction zone; and (4) a pressure let-down and reaction product separation zone. The machinery and methods minimize water usage—thereby enabling the economic utilization of abundant biomass and waste plastics as viable renewable feedstocks for subsequent conversion into alternative liquid transportation fuels and valuable green-chemical products.

Claim (Index 1):
A machine for transforming a selected polymeric material into a plurality of reaction products via supercritical water reaction, comprising:\n an extruder having an inlet and a downstream outlet, wherein the downstream outlet is coincident with the longitudinal axis of the extruder; a steam generator fluidically connected to a downstream inlet manifold, wherein the inlet manifold forms a ring having a plurality of inwardly facing exit portals, wherein the plurality of exit portals is circumferentially positioned about the inner surface of the ring; a tubular reactor having an interior space fluidically connected to an inlet end and an outlet end, wherein the inlet end of the tubular reactor is adjacent and fluidically connected to both (i) the outlet of the extruder, and (ii) the plurality of circumferentially positioned exit portals of the inlet manifold, wherein the inlet end of the reactor is configured such that, under operating conditions, a flowing polymeric extrudate exiting the outlet of the extruder and entering into the interior space of the tubular reactor is radially impinged upon by flowing hot compressed water and/or supercritical water that is exiting the plurality of circumferentially positioned exit portals, and wherein the outlet end of the tubular reactor is fluidically connected to; at least a first downstream chamber; and further comprising an occlusion centrally positioned within the inlet end of the tubular reactor.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 21.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.50893
- Patent Class: 422.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['13297217', '14549508', '12828102', '14549492', '12402489']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7952551281183097
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4812042646873903
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7638500417752178
- Mean Citation Score: 221.361426
- Max Citation Score: 242.81396
- Similarity Product: 182.4801352749968

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

Dataset: test