US Patent Issued to BASF on March 17 for "Process for reduction of asphaltenes from marine fuels" (German Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,577,485, issued on March 17, was assigned to BASF SE (Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany).

"Process for reduction of asphaltenes from marine fuels" was invented by Jochen Wagner (Ludwigshafen, Germany), Silvia Hoffmann (Ludwigshafen, Germany), Ingo Gottschling (Ludwigshafen, Germany), Markus Hansch (Ludwigshafen, Germany) and Timo Baumgaertner (Ludwigshafen, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A process dissolves or disperses asphaltenes from marine fuels by using at least one quaternary ammonium compound. A weight ratio of aromatics to asphaltenes in the marine fuel is not more than 7.0. A marine fuel is produced that includes saturates...