Patents by Inventor Ernest Keller

Ernest Keller has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9676695
    Abstract: A method is disclosed of coupling and integrating natural gas recovery and separation along with chemical conversion. The method can comprise extracting at least one natural gas component. Non-limiting examples of the extracted component include ethane, propane, butanes, and pentanes. The method can also comprise contacting a natural gas stream with a catalyst under conditions that selectively convert at least one component into at least one product, such as ethylene, acetic acid, polyethylene, vinyl acetate, ethylene vinyl acetate, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, and their derivatives, propylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, propylene glycol, acrylates, acrolein, acrylic acid, butenes, butadiene, methacrolein, methacrylic acid, methacrylates, and their derivatives, which can then be separated from the remaining components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Inventors: Mark Allen Nunley, Madan Mohan Bhasin, William George Etzkorn, George Ernest Keller, II, Parvez H. Wadia
  • Publication number: 20140021135
    Abstract: A process for a purification of water with multiple contaminants including dissolved solids. The process may involve one or more steps of separating oil and water, metals precipitation, dissolved air flotation (DAF), filtration, forward or reverse osmosis and crystallization. An improved DAF unit is described which increases air dissolution to oxidize impurities and improve flotation. Various embodiments of staged osmotic membrane systems are provided to generate an essentially pure water stream and a highly concentrated solute stream. In some embodiments, reverse osmosis and nanofiltration units are employed in a staged manner. In other embodiments, all stages are reverse osmosis units and the osmotic pressure of each stage is adjusted by the provision of a solution on the low pressure side of the reverse osmosis membrane using nanofiltration membranes. Various recycle options are employed to improve the efficiency of the systems.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2012
    Publication date: January 23, 2014
    Applicant: LIBERTY HYDRO, INC.
    Inventors: John E. Sawyer, Arthur L. Lucas, Vincent Maurice Davis, Bernard Duane Dombek, George Ernest Keller, II
  • Publication number: 20120222422
    Abstract: A method is disclosed of coupling and integrating natural gas recovery and separation along with chemical conversion. The method can comprise extracting at least one natural gas component. Non-limiting examples of the extracted component include ethane, propane, butanes, and pentanes. The method can also comprise contacting a natural gas stream with a catalyst under conditions that selectively convert at least one component into at least one product, such as ethylene, acetic acid, polyethylene, vinyl acetate, ethylene vinyl acetate, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, and their derivatives, propylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, propylene glycol, acrylates, acrolein, acrylic acid, butenes, butadiene, methacrolein, methacrylic acid, methacrylates, and their derivatives, which can then be separated from the remaining components.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 29, 2012
    Publication date: September 6, 2012
    Inventors: Mark Allen Nunley, Madan Mohan Bhasin, William George Etzkorn, George Ernest Keller, II, Parvez H. Wadia
  • Patent number: 7370503
    Abstract: The safety key has a shank which is provided with a plurality of control surfaces for properly positioning tumblers and has a front end and a rear end. At a front end, the rotor of the associated locking cylinder has at least one further control surface, which interacts with a further control surface arranged at the rear end of the shank. The safety key is backward compatible and is relatively difficult to copy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2008
    Inventor: Ernest Keller
  • Publication number: 20060086164
    Abstract: The safety key has a shank which is provided with a plurality of control surfaces for properly positioning tumblers and has a front end and a rear end. At a front end, the rotor of the associated locking cylinder has at least one further control surface, which interacts with a further control surface arranged at the rear end of the shank. The safety key is backward compatible and is relatively difficult to copy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2005
    Publication date: April 27, 2006
    Inventor: Ernest Keller
  • Publication number: 20040138347
    Abstract: One submits rice outer covering to a grinding process (01), next to a drying process (02), passing then through a sprayer (03) where one mixes from 2 to 10% of oil, mineral and/or vegetal and/or animal, mineral or vegetal fat to the dry rice outer covering, which goes on being transported towards the mixer (04), next towards the resin mixer (05), where one can add mineral and/or vegetal oils, greases and/or animal, mineral and/or vegetal fats, plastifiers, pigments etc., being after submitted to heating (06) and next to a final molding process (07).
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2003
    Publication date: July 15, 2004
    Inventors: Arno Ernest Keller, Ivo AntonioBarcellos Steigleder, Joao Nadir Franco De Lima
  • Patent number: 6252123
    Abstract: This invention relates to a process for the separation of a metal complex catalyst and any free ligand which may be present, from a homogeneous organic synthesis reaction mixture using sub-nanoporous, chemically stable membranes having discrete pores which allow organic products and by-products to pass through the membrane as permeate while retaining substantially all of the metal complex catalyst and free ligand, if any, as retentate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2001
    Assignee: Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Jay Fingeret Miller, Joan Ayer Rodberg, Brian Michael Roesch, George Ernest Keller, II, Lisa Evans Curry, Paul Frank Bryan, John Edward Davis, James Charles Hatfield
  • Patent number: 6036865
    Abstract: This invention relates to a process for separating epsilon caprolactam from a feed mixture comprising epsilon caprolactam and one or more epsilon caprolactam isomers selected from the group consisting of 4-ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone, 5-methyl-2-piperdinone, 3-ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone and 3-methyl-2-piperdinone which process comprises contacting under adsorption conditions said mixture with an adsorbent, selectively adsorbing said epsilon caprolactam isomers to substantial exclusion of said epsilon caprolactam, removing the non-adsorbed portion of the feed mixture from contact with the adsorbent, and thereafter recovering high purity epsilon caprolactam. The epsilon caprolactam isomers can be recovered by desorption under desorption conditions. The process can be conducted in a batch or semi-batch manner or in a continuous manner using moving bed or simulated moving bed technologies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2000
    Assignee: Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Jay Fingeret Miller, George Ernest Keller, II
  • Patent number: 5856150
    Abstract: Processes are disclosed for the selective hydrolysis of saturated esters, e.g., ethyl propionate, over unsaturated esters, e.g., ethyl acrylate, using enzymes, e.g., lipases. The processes are useful, for example, for removing undesired esters from monomer feeds used in latex polymerization and from the latexes after polymerization. The processes can be used, for example, to treat latexes used in hair fixative compositions to remove unpleasant odors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 5, 1999
    Assignee: Amerchol Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin Andrew DiGregorio, James Charles Hatfield, George Ernest Keller
  • Patent number: 5744556
    Abstract: A process for the gas-phase polymerization of polymers which allows for the introduction of an unsupported polymerization catalyst system into the gas-phase reactor, wherein the unsupported polymerization catalyst system comprises (i) a non-volatile materials fraction containing a polymerization catalyst; (ii) a solvent fraction which is at least partially miscible with the non-volatile materials fraction and which is sufficiently volatile to allow for the formation of polymerization catalyst particles when the mixture of the solvent fraction and the non-volatile materials fraction is sprayed into the reactor; (iii) a compressed fluid; and (iv) optionally a slowly vaporizing solvent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 28, 1998
    Assignee: Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology Corporation
    Inventors: George Ernest Keller, Keith Ernest Carmichael, Jean Bowman Cropley, Eldon Ronald Larsen, Arakalud Venkatapathia Ramamurthy, Mark Wilton Smale, Timothy Todd Wenzel, Clark Curtis Williams
  • Patent number: 5431737
    Abstract: A chuck in a coating chamber in a CVD system has a hearth for providing heat to a substrate and an interchangeable chuck surface mounted on the hearth for supporting a substrate to be coated during processing. In preferred embodiment there are a plurality of chucks in a system. Excessive coating on surfaces in the CVD chamber other than substrate surfaces to be coated is substantially removed periodically by venting the chamber and replacing the interchangeable chuck faces. Also in a preferred embodiment, an interlocking feature operable by temperature is provided to secure the chuck faces during operation and to release them for interchanging. Also in a preferred embodiment heat transfer between the hearth and the chuck is enhanced by rings and grooves that increase surface area for heat transfer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 1992
    Date of Patent: July 11, 1995
    Assignee: Genus, Inc.
    Inventors: Ernest Keller, Frederick J. Scholz
  • Patent number: 4932358
    Abstract: A seal ring presses against a wafer on a CVD chuck continuously around the outer periphery of the wafer, and with sufficient force to hold the backside of the wafer against the chuck, so no CVD material may deposit on the backside of the wafer. The seal ring has one surface for contacting the frontside of the wafer and a second surface that extends close to the CVD chuck, so the edge of the wafer is also excluded from CVD coating. With use of the wafer seal ring apparatus and method, CVD coating is confined to the frontside of a wafer. In a preferred embodiment, an apparatus with a slide operated by a cam lever and a tension spring for moving the seal ring and pressing it against a wafer on a CVD chuck is used with each of multiple chucks attached to a rotatable turret within a CVD chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1989
    Date of Patent: June 12, 1990
    Assignee: Genus, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Studley, Ernest Keller
  • Patent number: D265235
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 1980
    Date of Patent: June 29, 1982
    Inventor: Ernest Keller