Patents by Inventor Joao Frausto Da Silva

Joao Frausto Da Silva 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).

  • Method for the conversion, under mild conditions and in aqueous medium, of gaseous and liquid alkanes into carboxylic acids
    Patent number: 8058472
    Abstract: The present invention concerns a new efficient method for the selective transformation, under mild conditions and in aqueous medium, of gaseous (ethane, propane and n-butane) and liquid (n-pentane, n-hexane, cyclopentane and cyclohexane) alkanes into carboxylic acids bearing one more carbon atom, characterized by a single-pot low-temperature (25-60° C.) reaction of the alkane with carbon monoxide in water/acetonitrile liquid medium, either in the absence or in the presence of a metal catalyst, in systems containing also an oxidant (a peroxodisulphate salt).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Instituto Superior Tecnico
    Inventors: Armando Pombeiro, Marina Kirillova, Alexander Kirillov, Jose Armando Silva, Joao Frausto Da Silva
  • Process for direct conversion of methane into acetic acid
    Patent number: 7238838
    Abstract: The invention consists on the utilization of complexes of vanadium (in the +4 and +5 oxidation states) with bi- or poly-dentate ligands coordinated by nitrogen and oxygen (N,O) or by oxygen and oxygen (O,O) atoms, namely derivatives of aminoalcohols, (hydroxyimino)dicarboxylic acids, hydroxypyranones, trifluoroacetic acid, triflic acid or inorganic acid, as catalysts for the direct single-pot conversion, under mild conditions, of methane in acetic acid, either in the absence or in the presence of carbon monoxide, and in the presence of a peroxodisulfate salt (K2S2O8), in trifluoroacetic acid (CF3COOH), according to the general reaction (I).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Instituto Superior Tecnico
    Inventors: Armando Pombeiro, Joäo Fraústo Da Silva, Yuzo Fujiwara, Josë Silva, Patricia Reis, António F. Palavra
  • Vanadium catalysts and process for the direct conversion of methane into acetic acid
    Publication number: 20060155145
    Abstract: The invention consists on the utilization of complexes of vanadium (in the +4 and +5 oxidation states) with bi- or poly-dentate ligands coordinated by nitrogen and oxygen (N,O) or by oxygen and oxygen (O,O) atoms, namely derivaties of aminoalcohols, (hydroxyimino)dicarboxylic acids, hydroxypyranones, trifluoroacetic acid, triflic acid or inorganic acid, as catalysts for the direct single-pot conversion, under mild conditions, of methane in acetic acid, either in the absence or in the presence of carbon monoxide, and in the presence of a peroxodisulfate salt (K2S2O8), in trifluoroacetic acid (CF3COOH), according to the general reaction (I).
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2003
    Publication date: July 13, 2006
    Inventors: Armando Pombeiro, Joao Frausto Da Silva, Yuzo Fujiwara, Jose Silva, Patricia Reis, Antonio Palavra