US Patent Issued to ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL), GAZNAT on June 2 for "Methanation reactor and method" (Swiss Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,643,081, issued on June 2, was assigned to ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL) (Lausanne, Switzerland) and GAZNAT SA (Lausanne, Switzerland).

"Methanation reactor and method" was invented by Andreas Zuttel (Sion, Switzerland) and Noris Gallandat (Schwarzsee, Switzerland).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present relates to a chemical reactor comprising a catalyst bed enclosed in a reactor vessel and at least one cooling tube placed in the reactor vessel and passing through the catalyst bed, characterized in that the cooling tubes are disposed within the reactor so as to generate thermal gradients of at least 20deg C./cm thereb...