Patents by Inventor Thomas Young Lightfoot

Thomas Young Lightfoot 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).

  • Optimized liquid-phase oxidation
    Patent number: 7884232
    Abstract: Disclosed is an optimized process and apparatus for more efficiently and economically carrying out the liquid-phase oxidation of an oxidizable compound. Such liquid-phase oxidation is carried out in a bubble column reactor that provides for a highly efficient reaction at relatively low temperatures. When the oxidized compound is para-xylene and the product from the oxidation reaction is crude terephthalic acid (CTA), such CTA product can be purified and separated by more economical techniques than could be employed if the CTA were formed by a conventional high-temperature oxidation process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2011
    Assignee: Eastman Chemical Company
    Inventors: Alan George Wonders, Thomas Young Lightfoot, Thomas Earl Woodruff, Charles Helton Hitchcock, David Lee Denton, Carl Norman McCurry
  • Optimized liquid-phase oxidation
    Patent number: 7683210
    Abstract: Disclosed is an optimized process and apparatus for more efficiently and economically carrying out the liquid-phase oxidation of an oxidizable compound. Such liquid-phase oxidation is carried out in a bubble column reactor that provides for a highly efficient reaction at relatively low temperatures. When the oxidized compound is para-xylene and the product from the oxidation reaction is crude terephthalic acid (CTA), such CTA product can be purified and separated by more economical techniques than could be employed if the CTA were formed by a conventional high-temperature oxidation process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Eastman Chemical Company
    Inventors: Alan George Wonders, Thomas Young Lightfoot, Thomas Earl Woodruff, Charles Helton Hitchcock, David Lee Denton, Carl Norman McCurry
  • Optimized liquid-phase oxidation
    Patent number: 7586000
    Abstract: Disclosed is an optimized process and apparatus for more efficiently and economically carrying out the liquid-phase oxidation of an oxidizable compound. Such liquid-phase oxidation is carried out in a bubble column reactor that provides for a highly efficient reaction at relatively low temperatures. When the oxidized compound is para-xylene and the product from the oxidation reaction is crude terephthalic acid (CTA), such CTA product can be purified and separated by more economical techniques than could be employed if the CTA were formed by a conventional high-temperature oxidation process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: Eastman Chemical Company
    Inventors: Alan George Wonders, Thomas Young Lightfoot, Charles Edwan Sumner, Jr., Thomas Earl Woodruff, Ernest William Arnold, III, Eric Jackson Fugate, Charles Helton Hitchcock, Brent Alan Tennant, John David Aycock