Today the United States Patent Office issued yet another patent for an apparent perpetual motion device. Of course, they don’t call it a perpetual motion device, but the fact is, it charges its own batteries in order to avoid “using fossil fules”.

It is amazing that this patent was approved, considering the apparent “culture of rejection” currently at the United States Patent Office - where Examiner’s are given a strong incentive to reject patent applications, yet have no incentive to approve them.  While this patent issues, I’ve seen many meritorious inventions denied.

Download United States Patent No. 7,511,451

The United States Patent Office (USPTO), issued a patent for a “System and method for creating a networked vehicle infrastructure distribution platform of small wind gathering devices”.  In other words, the inventor of United States Patent No. 7,492,053 proposes creating a network of vehicles that are each capable of collecting and storing wind energy.  This system proposes allowing the vehicles to collect wind energy, and then deposit the wind energy “for system credit”.

Download United States Patent No. 7,492,053

Conventional geothermal energy systems utilize natural reservoirs of heat energy located below the earth’s surface.  Today, the United States Patent Office issued a patent which stores solar energy in subsurface geologic reservoirs.  The method includes transferring concentrated solar thermal energy to a fluid, thereby generating a supercritical fluid.  Once charged with the supercritical fluid, the subsurface geologic formation forms a synthetic geothermal reservoir.

Download United States Patent No. 7,472,548

Recognizing that the supply of water continues to grow scarce, the United States Patent Office today issued U.S. Patent No. 7,465,123.

In part by circulating cooler water to the surface, this system seeks to reduce evaporation in large bodies of water, such as reservoirs.

Download United States Patent No. 7,465,123

When the greater majority of windmills are located at remote and often desolate locations, noise is hardly an issue.  When installation of windmills is contemplated for suburban and even urban locations, however, noise becomes an important consideration.

Today the United States Patent Office issued yet another windmill related patent to General Electric Corporation.  In this patent, a wind turbine is proposed which has a rigid “acoustic flap”, which extends outwardly from the trailing edge of the blade body.  The distal end of the acoustic flap is smooth and continuous, and results in a reduction of the acoustic noise generated by the blade in use.

Download United States Patent No. 7,458,777

According to this United States Patent, issued today: Fuels may be derived from existing waste streams such as animal wastes and streams of discarded or unwanted animal byproducts generated at animal slaughterhouses.  A method of processing organic waste products into fuel includes homogenizing the waste products.  The waste products are heated and pressurized.  Water is removed from the waste products and select constituents are separated into a waste stream which is blended with a fuel to form a bio-fuel mixture.

Download United States Patent No. 7,455,704

Today, a Virginia Inventor received a United States Patent for a system that generates hydrogen, using ocean wave energy.  This portable sea-powered electrolysis generator is an apparatus that continually and conveniently harnesses the energy emanating from sea-wave motion in order to propagate hydrogen to be stored for use as a clean, reusable energy source through the process of electrolysis.  The motion of waves is used to power a agenerator that supplies power to water to produce hydrogen through electrolysis.

Download United States Patent No. 7,456,512

Taking an interesting approach to generating electricity from fluid currents (e.g. ocean currents), this patent, issued by the USPTO today uses a set of trolleys mounted to travel around a ringed track.  A fin is attached to each trolley for sending it on a repetitive journey around the track.  Electricity is generated through interaction of magnetic elements on the track and trolley.

Download United States Patent No. 7,453,166

Combining two of the most popular alternative energy categories, a Texas inventor has proposed a solar windmill.  In the patent that issued today, a windmill system is described which has solar panels mounted on the turbine itself.  Apparently the idea is to capture solar energy from various directions without using a solar tracking system.  I would imagine that the price of photovoltaic cells will need to drop a bit first before this approach is feasible.

Download United States Patent No. 7,453,167

Thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) cells generate electricity from low temperature heat radiation.  Generally these thermo-voltaic cells have been limited in efficiency, as they are only capable of converting heat radiation within a narrow frequency range, which doesn’t include a significant portion of the spectrum of available heat radiation.

Developed primarily for use with high-altitude airships (HAA), Lockheed Martin has patented a TPV cell which utilizes a larger portion of the available spectrum.  In particular, the improved TPV cell was devised to use the large surface area of the airship to harness heat radiation emanating from the earth below (so-called “earthshine”).  By applying an electric field to the TPV material, sensitivity is shifted to include lower frequency heat radiation.

Download United States Patent No. 7,446,451