ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,577,481, issued on March 17, was assigned to W2E RENEWABLE SOLUTIONS INC. (Castle Pines, Colo.).

"Processes and systems for conversion of animal manure to thermal gas and biochar" was invented by Chris Webb (Englewood, Colo.), Roger Oliver (Castle Rock, Colo.) and Daren E. Daugaard (Newburg, Mo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Processes and systems are disclosed for converting animal manure into useful energy and materials. Some variations provide a process for converting animal manure into a purified thermal gas, comprising: drying a starting animal manure in a manure dryer; pelletizing the dried animal manure to generate manure pellets...