New Technology Alert: Biofuels, bioenergy and biobased products

The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) publishes a new Technology Alert: Biofuels, bioenergy and biobased products. 

Biomass is the natural and renewable energy resource that was first within the reach of human beings, to the point that biomass combustion marks  the evolution of mankind. Even today, the direct combustion of biomass and its derivatives for the production of thermal and electrical energy is developing technology applicable to domestic or industrial thermal installations.

 There are also mechanical technologies applicable to biomass in processes of cleaning and separation, densification, milling and extraction that allow obtaining products of interest such as starch, hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin, vegetable oils, proteins or also thermo-electric energy.

Thermochemical (pyrolysis, gasification, combustion) and chemical technologies (e.g. transesterification to produce biodiesel) also lead to products of interest for energy production, transportation or chemical synthesis.

 Biomass can also be transformed by enzymatic catalysis, fermentation and decomposition processes with microorganisms that allow, for example, obtaining biogas by anaerobic digestion or liquid biofuels by fermentation.

This range of technologies is of particular interest not only for producing renewable energy and products of strategic and commercial interest, but also for their circularity in the use of waste from human activity.

 With this Technology Alert on "Biofuels, bioenergy and bio-based products", prepared in collaboration with the Spanish Technology and Innovation Platform 'Biomass for the Bioeconomy' BIOPLAT, daily updated information is provided on patents published in the world in relation to this sector. It is in application of the Industrial Property Collaboration Agreement signed with this technology platform,.

With this latest alert, there are now 34 Technology Alerts available on the SPTO website in different technical sectors.

Together with the Technology Surveillance Bulletins, quarterly publications that include a selection of the most relevant patents published in the world in 17 different technological sectors, the Technology Alerts complete the range of free technology watch services provided by SPTO patent examiners that have been offered since 2002.