Patents by Inventor Shoufu Hou

Shoufu Hou 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: 8052775
    Abstract: Process for preparing a two layer metal palladium or palladium alloy composite membrane consisting of a porous substrate support and a palladium or palladium alloy membrane by rinsing/washing and drying the porous substrate support, treating the porous substrate support with a pore filler in order to decorate the pores of the support and the disfigurements of the substrate surface, sensitizing and activating with a palladium solution the decorated substrate support, and plating the resulting support with a palladium solution to form the two layer composite membrane, drying. The resulting composite membrane is subjected to a post-processing where the pore fillers residing in the pore-channels of the porous substrate are partly removed or reduced in volume through heating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2011
    Assignees: BP P.L.C., Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
    Inventors: Shoufu Hou, Kui Jiang, Wenzhao Li, Hengyong Xu, Lixiang Yuan
  • Publication number: 20090264543
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a novel integrated process for the co-production of methanol and dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas containing nitrogen, which is based on a two-stage reaction. In the first stage, most of the syngas is converted into methanol by using one reactor or two tandem reactors or multistage series reactors. In the second stage, the small amount of remaining syngas is further diluted by N2 and is converted to DME in the following reactor. Thus, the catalyst sintering is avoided due to the alleviated heat transfer limitations. An overall CO single pass conversion as high as ˜90% is obtained, which is maintained during 2000 h's of continuous operation. This invention provides a novel, economic and easy to operate process to convert syngas to methanol/DME in single pass.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2005
    Publication date: October 22, 2009
    Applicants: BP, P.L.C., Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Inventors: Hengyong Xu, Qingjie Ge, Chunhua Tang, Shoufu Hou, Wenzhao Li
  • Publication number: 20090130477
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a metal palladium composite membrane or an alloy palladium composite membrane in which essentially the metal palladium membrane or alloy palladium membrane exists substantially on the outer surface of the porous substrate support, with little or no presence in the pore channels of the support, and to process for its preparation. The process comprises the steps of treating the porous substrate with a pore filler before plating it with a palladium solution to form the composite membrane.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2005
    Publication date: May 21, 2009
    Applicants: BP P.L.C., DALIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
    Inventors: Shoufu Hou, Kui Jiang, Wenzhao Li, Hengyong Xu, Lixiang Yuan