Patents by Inventor Lawrence Megan

Lawrence Megan 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: 7448230
    Abstract: Method for controlling the production of one or more liquid products produced by one or more plants, that can be an air separation plant, that has a liquid storage capacity and that consumes electrical power. Linguistic values related to current liquid inventory, a rate of change of liquid inventory, projected demand requirements and projected unit power costs are inputted into a expert system controller having one or more rule sets that apply such input linguistic values to produce output linguistic values that are converted back to an output numerical value of a forecasted differential production rate to be applied during a forecast period. The output numerical value of differential production is added to the current production rate of the plants to obtain a new production rate which is applied during the forecast period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Praxair Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: William Randy Esposito, Lawrence Megan
  • Publication number: 20070186583
    Abstract: Method for controlling the production of one or more liquid products produced by one or more plants, that can be an air separation plant, that has a liquid storage capacity and that consumes electrical power. Linguistic values related to current liquid inventory, a rate of change of liquid inventory, projected demand requirements and projected unit power costs are inputted into a expert system controller having one or more rule sets that apply such input linguistic values to produce output linguistic values that are converted back to an output numerical value of a forecasted differential production rate to be applied during a forecast period. The output numerical value of differential production is added to the current production rate of the plants to obtain a new production rate which is applied during the forecast period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Publication date: August 16, 2007
    Inventors: William Esposito, Lawrence Megan
  • Patent number: 7249470
    Abstract: Method for controlling the production of one or more liquid products produced by one or more plants, that can be an air separation plant, that has a liquid storage capacity and that consumes electrical power. Linguistic values related to current liquid inventory, a rate of change of liquid inventory, projected demand requirements and projected unit power costs are inputted into a expert system controller having one or more rule sets that apply such input linguistic values to produce output linguistic values that are converted back to an output numerical value of a forecasted differential production rate to be applied during a forecast period. The output numerical value of differential production is added to the current production rate of the plants to obtain a new production rate which is applied during the forecast period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2007
    Assignee: Praxair Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: William Randy Esposito, Lawrence Megan
  • Publication number: 20060225462
    Abstract: Method for controlling the production of one or more liquid products produced by one or more plants, that can be an air separation plant, that has a liquid storage capacity and that consumes electrical power. Linguistic values related to current liquid inventory, a rate of change of liquid inventory, projected demand requirements and projected unit power costs are inputted into a expert system controller having one or more rule sets that apply such input linguistic values to produce output linguistic values that are converted back to an output numerical value of a forecasted differential production rate to be applied during a forecast period. The output numerical value of differential production is added to the current production rate of the plants to obtain a new production rate which is applied during the forecast period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2005
    Publication date: October 12, 2006
    Inventors: William Esposito, Lawrence Megan
  • Patent number: 7092893
    Abstract: A method of controlling liquid and gaseous production within a plurality of air separation plants to produce and distribute gaseous and liquid products to a plurality of customers in which the electrical power costs involved in producing gaseous and liquid products is optimized to be at a minimum together with road shipping costs of liquid products by a real time optimization program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2006
    Assignee: Praxair Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Lawrence Megan, David F. Lennox, Paul F. Scharf, Derin Adebekun
  • Publication number: 20040148264
    Abstract: A method of controlling liquid and gaseous production within a plurality of air separation plants to produce and distribute gaseous and liquid products to a plurality of customers in which the electrical power costs involved in producing gaseous and liquid products is optimized to be at a minimum together with road shipping costs of liquid products by a real time optimization program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2003
    Publication date: July 29, 2004
    Inventors: Lawrence Megan, David F. Lennox, Paul F. Scharf, Derin Adebekun
  • Patent number: 6697713
    Abstract: A method of controlling a gas distribution system in which one or more air separation plants supply gaseous oxygen and nitrogen products to pipeline sections. The air separation plants are controlled by supervisory control systems that direct production rates of the gaseous products to be consumed by customers connected to the pipeline sections. The gas distribution system is controlled by a model predictive control system in which empirically determined open loop response models are used to generate open loop responses of the pipeline sections due to changes in customer demands. Optimized closed loop responses in production rate requests to the supervisory control systems are generated by model predictive control techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2004
    Assignee: Praxair Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Lawrence Megan, David F. Lennox, Paul F. Scharf, Derin Adebekun, Mark Zhu
  • Publication number: 20030144766
    Abstract: A method of controlling a gas distribution system in which one or more air separation plants supply gaseous oxygen and nitrogen products to pipeline sections. The air separation plants are controlled by supervisory control systems that direct production rates of the gaseous products to be consumed by customers connected to the pipeline sections. The gas distribution system is controlled by a model predictive control system in which empirically determined open loop response models are used to generate open loop responses of the pipeline sections due to changes in customer demands. Optimized closed loop responses in production rate requests to the supervisory control systems are generated by model predictive control techniques.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2002
    Publication date: July 31, 2003
    Inventors: Lawrence Megan, David F. Lennox, Paul F. Scharf, Derin Adebekun, Mark Zhu