WP5 - BUSINESS PLAN & EXPLOITATION D5.5 Patents …€¦ · Microfiltration [0.1-0.5]µ m Ultrafiltration [0.005-0.05]µ m Nanofiltration [0.0005-0.005]µ m Reverse Osmosis Other(s)

CIP-EIP-Eco-Innovation-2013: Pilot and market replication projects. ID: ECO/13/630314 LESS-WATER BEV.TECH.

LESS-WATER BEV TECH D5.5 def 1/15

CIP Eco-innovation

First application and market replication projects

Call Identifier: CIP-EIP-Eco-Innovation-2013

LESS-WATER BEV.TECH Project Contract ECO/13/630314

WP5 - BUSINESS PLAN & EXPLOITATION

D5.5 Patents registration and/or extension

Reporting Date

31/03/2017

Project coordinator: A DUE DI SQUERI DONATO & C. S.p.A.

Project website: www.lesswaterbevtech.com

DOCUMENT DISSEMINATION LEVEL

PU Public

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)

CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

http://www.lesswaterbevtech.com/


LESS-WATER BEV TECH D5.5 def 2/15 2/15

Introduction

The present report is part of the activities carried out in Work Package 5 (WP5), whose aim is

to have an exploitation and a market replication of the new water treatment system on the EU

and MENA markets during the implementation of the project, starting from the fine-tuning of

the existing business plan on the base of the existing data and results coming (from time to

time) from the other WPs. This brings to a better definition of the effective exploitation

strategies to be implemented and to the guidelines for the long term market sustainability of

the new water treatment technology on the market.

All the phases are reported in the following confidential deliverables (WP5), as follows:

Delive-

rable

N°

Deliverable name (self-

explanatory)

Type of

deliverable

Quantifi-

cation

For

Publica-

tions:

Language(s)

Accessibility

of delive-

rable

Month

of

comple-

tion

D5.1 Final Business Plan formal

definition (EU market) Business Plan 1 EN CO 18

D5.2 Final Business Plan formal

definition (MENA market) Business Plan 1 EN CO 24

D5.3

Technology benefit

demonstration and

measurement. Technology

adaptation. (EU market)

Report 1 EN CO 27

D5.4

Technology benefit

demonstration and

measurement. Technology

adaptation. (MENA market)

Report 1 EN CO 28

D5.5 Patents registration and/or

extension Patent demands TBD EN PU 30

D5.6

First-mover & New

technology standard

exploitation

Installed

innovative

equipment

Report

1 EN CO 36

D5.7 Capabilities & Human

Resources Report 1 EN CO 30

D5.8

Economies of Scope &

Technology Collaboration

Report 1 EN CO 30

D5.9

Clients exploitation: Group

1: Big CSD Bottling

Companies in EU and

MENA – Technology

partnerships

Installed

innovative

equipment

1/3 Italy, UK or

MENA CO 36

D5.10 Distribution, Promotion &

Replication Report 1 EN CO 36

D5.11 Cost-Benefit Analysis. Report 1 EN CO 36

In particular, D5.5 aims at assessing the opportunity of registering a patent to protect the

technical solution developed within the Project. This is in order to maintain the competitive

advantage constituting a further barrier market enter both for the existing competitors and for

potential new entrants.



D5.5 Patents registration and/or extension

The project team verified the possibility to protect the new system with international patents.

At first, UniBo made a detailed bibliographical and patent search on solutions and the existing

trends on patent licensing in the field of water purification solutions and applications to the

food and beverage industry.

Bibliographical analysis

The evidences from the bibliographical analysis of the scientific literature are summarized in

the following table providing a systematic classification against the following drivers:

Manuscript type.

Industrial sector.

Purified fluid.

Investigated technology.

The global overview of the matrix shows the research trends in this research field. Some

interpretative keys are in the following.

Multiple examples of full-scale plants are proposed indicating an advanced technology

readiness level of water purification technologies. This is particularly true for RO

technology already widely adopted in both large and small-scale F&B plants.

The frontier of the research, studied from different perspectives in a wide number of

research papers, is on innovative materials for membranes, on the integration of

multiple technologies for a low-maintenance, low-carbon and low-energy purification

plant and on wastewater local recovery even under critic conditions in terms of water

contaminants, e.g. meat, dairy and fruit industries.

The integration of ultrafiltration and RO within the series of the plant functional

modules is widely adopted in the F&B sector. This is to remove the suspended solids

and, then, the solutes. UV is, generally, at the last stage.

Wide interest is in water desalination, even from seawater, due to the large

applicability of such solutions, worldwide.

Despite deep studies applied to the beverage industry exist; research is more limited

for the food industry mainly because of the lower attention to the water problems.

Research on wastewater is still limited respect to raw water (including water within

water-based products); it is concentrated in the most recent years even if the

pioneering studies dated early ’90s state the water intensity of the F&B sector.

Rising attention is on alternative purification technologies with very-low

environmental impact. Good examples use bioreactors strongly reducing the need of

chemicals. Weaknesses of such solutions are in the process time, the need of batches

instead of continuous water flows and the maintenance activities on the active agents.

Upgrades are mandatory before their use within the F&B industry.



Industrial

ApplicationResearch Paper Review/Survey Beverage Food

Multiple/Cross-

sectorialOther(s) Water/Wastewater Juices

Multiple/Cross-

sectorialOther(s)

Microfiltration [0.1-

0.5]µm

Ultrafiltration [0.005-

0.05]µm

Nanofiltration [0.0005-

0.005]µmReverse Osmosis Other(s)

1 1992 Capannelli et al. Lebensm-Wiss X X X X

2 1995 Al-Mazidi Desalination X X X

3 1996 A1-Malack & Anderson J of Membrane Science X X X X

4 1996 Jiraratananon & Chanachai J of Membrane Science X X X X

5 1996 Snow et al. Desalination X X X X X X

6 1997 Alvarez et al. J of Membrane Science X X X X

7 1997 Jiraratananon et al. J of Membrane Science X X X X

8 1998 Grimm et al. Desalination X X X Elettrochemistry

9 2000 El-Manharawy & Hafez Desalination X X X X

10 2000 Mavrov & Bélières Desalination X X X X X

11 2001 Al-Jayyousi & Mohsen Desalination X X X X

12 2001 El-Manharawy & Hafez Desalination X X X X

13 2002 Bruijn et al. Desalination X X X X

14 2003 De Barros et al. J of Membrane Science X X X X

15 2004 Galambos et al. Desalination X X X X X

16 2004 Uche et al. Desalination X X X X Distillation

17 2005 Bohdziewicz & Sroka Process Biochemistry X X X X

18 2005 Hinkebein & Price Desalination X X X X X X

19 2005 Mehta & Zydney J of Membrane Science X X X X

20 2005 Yazdanshenas et al. Separation & Purification Tech X X X X

21 2006 Baruah et al. J of Membrane Science X X X X

22 2006 Bruijn & Borquez LWT X X X X

23 2006 Cassano et al. Desalination X X X X Distillation

24 2007 Cassano et al. Desalination X X X X

25 2007 Cassano et al. J of Food Engineering X X X X

26 2007 Rai et al. J of Food Engineering X X X X

27 2007 Rektor et al. Separation & Purification Tech X X X X

28 2008 Cassano et al. Innovative Food Science and Emerging Tech X X X X

29 2008 Frenkel ASCE X X X X X X X

30 2008 Mirza Desalination X X X X X

31 2008 Mondal et al. AIChe X Oil & Gas X X X

32 2008 Poulirot Int Dairy J X X Dairy fluids X X X X

33 2008 Vourch et al. Desalination X X X X

34 2009 Di Giacomo & Taglieri Food Bioprocess Tech X X X X

35 2009 Eltawil et al. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews X X X X X X X

36 2009 Gokmen et al. J of Food Process Engineering X X X X

37 2009 Pradeep & Anshup Thin Solid Films X X X Thermal

38 2009 Tarquin et al. ASCE X Civil Uses X X X

39 2009 Zularisam et al. Separation & Purification Tech X X X X

40 2010 Astudillo et al. Separation & Purification Tech X X X X X X

41 2010 El-Kamah et al. Desalination X X X Thermal

42 2010 Geise et al. Wiley X X X X X X X

43 2010 Girard & Fukumoto Critical Review in Food Science & Nutrition X X X X X X

44 2010 Kanani et al. J of Membrane Science X X X X

45 2010 Onsekizoglu et al. J of Membrane Science X X XMembrane

distillation

46 2010 Yazdanshenas et al. Desalination X X X X

47 2011 Echevarrìa et al. Food Engineering Reviews X X X X X X

48 2011 Gao et al. Desalination X X X X

49 2011 Habibi et al. J of Food Process Engineering X X X X

50 2011 Razi et al. Int J of Food Science and Technology X X X X

51 2012 Macedonio et al. Chemical Engineering & Processing X X X X X X X

52 2013 Al Abdulgader et al. Separation & Purification Tech X X X X X X X

53 2013 Ghaffour et al. Desalination X X X X X X X

54 2013 Kujawski et al. J of Food Engineering X X X X

55 2013 Sudhakaran et al. Science of the Total Environment X X X X X X X

56 2014 And et al. Desalination X X X X X X X

57 2014 Mahmoud et al. Desalination X X X X X X X

58 2014 Sorlini et al. Water Practice & Technology X X X X X X X Thermal

Purified Fluid Key Investigated Technology(ies)Industrial SectorManuscript Type

Editorial SourceAuthor(s)Year#Id



Patent search

Concerning the patent search, UniBo went through the EPO-Espacenet database to investigate

the existing patents in the field and, most important, the patent categories matching the

elements of innovation of the proposed plant and solution.

Among all, the most relevant patent category fitting the Project is: “C02F 1/00 Treatment of

water, waste water, or sewage”, sub-categories:

C02F 1/44: by dialysis, osmosis or reverse osmosis (general membrane separation

processes B01D61/00, membrane modules B01D63/00, electrodialysis C02F1/4693,

combination of membrane modules and bioreactors C02F3/1268);

C02F 1/441: by reverse osmosis;

C02F 1/444: by ultrafiltration or microfiltration.

An extract of relevant existing recent patents is in the following list:



The streams of potential patentability of innovations in the waste water sector deals with:

Innovations in the filtration materials;

Innovations in the filtration dynamics;

Innovations in the filtration system overall energy and material performances;

Innovations in the purification technology;

Innovations in the membrane cleaning and/or self-cleaning;

Innovation in the filtration pressure dynamics;

Extension of existing purification processes to new sectors/contexts;

Extension of existing purification processes to new polluted water flows;

Extension of existing purification processes to new plants.

Globally, the combination of existing purification methods to configure innovative (and

highly innovative) solutions is within the integration of existing patents (one for each method)

and, generally, not immediately patentable themselves. Exceptions exist to this trend leading

to a specific subset of patents.

Decision on technology patentability

The bibliographic and patent analysis reveal that the new water treatment system is beyond

the scientific state of art but it does not completely fulfil the requirements for an immediate

patentability. The present technical state of the art, i.e. everything which has been made

accessible to the public, in Italy or abroad, has some precedent of attempts to combine

different technologies to increase the overall purification potential.



In addition, in this phase the partners agreed to focus their attention on the modularity and

adaptability of the process and the plant to the entry waste water and the plant boundary

conditions and not to freeze a standard configuration to protect with a patent. The definition of

rigid borders to the technology to protect, mandatory when applying a new patent, is not fully

coherent with the dynamic of the plant development, assessment and modularity.

Know-how protection long-term strategy

It is a strong interest for A DUE and the whole project partners to have high care of the know-

how they developed and integrated to the project plant. As a consequence they have been pro-

active in adopting actions to put in place an appropriate strategy. The objective was to defend

and protect confidential info and the acquired know-how, by implementing and organizing in

a cohesive fashion a series of actions, developed at different levels and at different points of

time. Such strategy is better tailored to the aforementioned features of the overall project.

Such strategy is built up on an organizational structure, able to supervise and control carefully

and scrupulously and to deal with appropriate measures every active action, from the inside to

the outside, by identifying and qualifying not only the content of know-how that need

protection, but also the parties involved in the matter.

This kind of activity has strategically involved the A DUE Company Top Management

(supported by an external lawyer with experience in managing problems and issues

concerning bonds, international contracts, company law, distribution agreements), and, from

an executive point of view, A DUE Legal Department, ICT Dept., the purchasing staff and the

various department heads. The achieved result is an effective Confidentiality Policy, which

regulates how the people involved should treat confidential information. The Confidentiality

Policy affects employees (including ownership), consultants, suppliers and/or technological

partners (Universities of Bologna and Parma, the SSICA- Experimental Station for the Food

Preserving Industry in Parma, etc.), customers who may have access to confidential

information.

In this way, even when Industrial Patents are not granted, industrial and strategic plans,

besides data concerning know-how, technological processes and trade secrets are protected,

through appropriate Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) among all Parties.

A DUE drew up adequate procedures and documents, able to settle the access to

confidential/classified info and, generally speaking, to the whole know-how of the Company.

Also the management of the above mentioned info, carried out by employees, suppliers and

customers, has undergone a strict regulation, as a prevention to their diffusion to third non-

authorized parties and/or their improper use.

With some strategic suppliers A DUE proposed an even more detailed NDA or with usual

suppliers, the Company subscribed a framework agreement.

Please find here attached:

standardized draft of NDA with a third party,

draft of a framework, subscribed with a long-term strategic supplier,

documents concerning the internal procedures for managing confidential info.

http://context.reverso.net/traduzione/inglese-italiano/cohesive

















Specifically for the on-going “Less-water Bev tech” project, A DUE has also developed

contracts for the regulation and management of confidential information:

with European Community (GRANT AGREEMENT)

with project’s partners (CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT)

with Consorzio Casalasco del Pomodoro (CCDP) which is the partner hosting the pilot

plant

with all technical and commercial consultant, who have supported the Company.

With the objective to grant all info, in terms of preservation, safety and recoverability, A DUE

has acted properly, embedding appropriate and adequate information protection system and

appliances, and also adopting dedicated company procedures, like for example The Corporate

Rules and Regulation for safety and usage of company electronic devices.

The whole information system is equipped with an up-to-date virus detection system

(Symantec End Point Protection, which keeps updated automatically everyday) and with a

Firewall WatchGuard, with an eventual daily update of all operating system’s features and of

the updates of WebFiltering and Application Filtering.

Anti-intrusion systems and information protection systems, but also the stringent criteria and

procedures for information transmission safety, have been defined after a profound and

accurate risk analysis connected with:

potential non-authorized access to all data and info from an external entity or party,

intentionally or unintentionally meant (protection of info/data confidentiality and privacy);

potential data alteration and/or deletion from non-authorized subjects;

potential not controllable events or occurrences that can damage data integrity (protection

of info integrity).

Finally, A DUE introduced suitable systems for recoverability of damaged info or lost data

and for data preservation in a copy (back-up plans), as a guarantee of integrity, and

procedures that define the preservation and recoverability mode.

In conclusion, the Confidentiality Policy and organizational structure implemented in A DUE

can guarantee a good level of protection of the know-how and of all confidential info,

allowing A DUE to maintain its competitive advantage. The project Partners agreed with the

adopted strategy and from their own sides collaborate to the know-how protection policy.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The

contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the partners project and can in no

way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

Documents

WP5 - BUSINESS PLAN & EXPLOITATION D5.5 Patents …€¦ · Microfiltration [0.1-0.5]µ m Ultrafiltration [0.005-0.05]µ m Nanofiltration [0.0005-0.005]µ m Reverse Osmosis Other(s)