Upgrading heavy oil by ultrafiltration using ceramic membrane
CA 2185264 C · Owner: University Of British Columbia · Inventors: Smith, Kevin J.
Overview
Its claims, description and drawings are in the Canadian Patents Database.
Open the CIPO recordAbstract From the Canadian patent
A large pore (500 - 2000 °A) ceramic membrane is used to separate asphaltenes from heavy crude oil. Permeate is recycled to the feed for an initial period, during which the pores are deliberately fouled to reduce pore size. This reduction eventually levels off, at which point recycling is terminated and ultrafiltration is continued thereafter at good flux rates with effective asphaltenes removal.
Read the whole patent
Listed from its CIPO record in Patent Yard's archive of Canadian patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the CIPO record and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.
Why it's free to use
- Filed September 11, 1996 and granted May 30, 2000. A Canadian patent filed from October 1, 1989 lasts 20 years from filing, so its term ended September 11, 2016.
- A certificate of supplementary protection adds at most two years for a drug, so even that would have ended by September 11, 2018.
- We check Canadian rights only. A patent in its family in another country could still be in force: check its family on Google Patents.
Timeline
Timeline From CIPO dates
Sources & verification
Official CIPO records
Everything on this page comes from the CIPO record linked above. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.