US Patent Issued to Canadian National Railway on May 12 for "Method and systems for transporting bitumen in solidified form" (Canadian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,624,293, issued on May 12, was assigned to Canadian National Railway Co. (Montreal).

"Method and systems for transporting bitumen in solidified form" was invented by James Auld (Calgary, Canada), John Bleile (Calmar, Canada), Kasra Nikooyeh (Edmonton, Canada), Amanda Prefontaine (Legal, Canada), Derek Stanger (Vancouver, Canada) and Jesse White (Calgary, Canada).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A solid bitumen pellet, including a mixture of bitumen and an additive, where the additive operates to increase the viscosity of the mixture. Optionally, the pellet includes a protective shell."

The patent was filed on May 31, 2023, under Application...