ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,686,038, issued on July 21, was assigned to PRO CLIR GMBH (Ahausen, Germany).

"Method and device for washing/cleaning granular material from slag and washing/cleaning bottom/boiler ash from a thermal waste treatment, and mineral residue and recycling material" was invented by Claus Gronholz (Ahausen OT Eversen, Germany) and Andre Gronholz (Tangstedt, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention relates to a method for washing/cleaning granular material from slag and for washing/cleaning bottom/boiler ash from a thermal waste treatment. In the method, the granular material is added to a process liquid and is subjected to ultrasoun...