Chemistry: fertilizers – Processes and products – Inorganic material
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-04
2004-06-15
Sayala, C. (Department: 1761)
Chemistry: fertilizers
Processes and products
Inorganic material
C071S033000, C071S054000, C071S056000, C071S057000, C071S058000, C071S028000, C071S029000, C071S030000, C071S061000, C071S064030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06749660
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND—FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention discloses advanced means for the formulation and preparation of solid-chemical compositions which provide for the slow, sustained-release of water-soluble nutrients, electron acceptors and other agents for agriculture and waste-treatment, in particular, the bioremediation of contaminated environmental media. Specifically, the present invention was developed to provide formulations of solid-chemical compositions and means for their preparation which provide improved means of providing the sustained-release of water-soluble nutrients to plants for agricultural/agribusiness and horticultural applications and to both plants and other biological organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, for the biologically mediated treatment of organic wastes and contaminated environmental media. An important advantage of the present invention is that the disclosed chemical formulations and the disclosed means for their manufacture are relatively simple and less expensive to produce than existing slow release of nutrient compositions. Moreover, the present invention can enable the production of slow-release solid-chemical fertilizers and nutrient formulations utilizing existing and underutilized manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and abroad.
Soil and ground-water pollution caused by chemical contaminants and excess nutrients released into the environment are well documented, world-wide problems. Such contamination is associated with many different types of agricultural and industrial activities over the last two centuries.
Nutrient contamination associated with agricultural activities is attributable to the relatively high solubilities of the nutrients present in most commercial fertilizer products. The high concentration and high-solubility of these fertilizers act to establish very high concentration gradients which tend to drive the rapid run-off and dispersion of the constituent nutrient compounds into the environment. Consequently, there is often insufficient time for the “target” plants or other biological organisms to efficiently, let alone completely, utilize the nutrient substances contained in these commercial fertilizers. Hence, much of the fertilizer may bypass the agricultural “target” and enter surface-water bodies via run-off or pollute ground-water aquifers via infiltration.
Despite recent advances in the art of slow-release fertilizers, the high costs of these materials has generally limited their utility to the home-and-garden horticulture market. Currently, there remains a need for more economical slow-release fertilizers which can be used to address the needs and environmental impacts associated with large-scale agricultural and horticultural fertilizer applications. The present invention discloses slow-release solid-chemical nutrient compositions and methods for their preparation and use which provide improved and significantly more economical means of meeting the needs of such large-scale agricultural and horticultural practices. Examples of agricultural applications and advantages of the present invention include enhanced efficiency of uptake of nutrients by plants and biological organisms, and reduced environmental contamination from nutrient run-off to surface-waters and ground-water aquifers.
Common chemical contaminants in the environment include many different types and forms of petroleum hydrocarbons, halogenated organic compounds including solvents (e.g., tetra- and trichloroethene, methylene chloride), organochlorine pesticides (e.g., DDT and toxaphene), and polychlorinated biphenyls (i.e., PCBs). The available toxicological data indicates that many of these contaminants, in particular many organic solvents and halogenated organic compounds, are toxic, carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic to humans, animals and other environmental receptors. In addition, the available environmental and ecological data have shown that many of these contaminants tend to persist in the environment for long time periods. The long-term stability and extremely slow degradation of many such environmental contaminants presents a substantial, long-term hazard to human health and the environment throughout the industrialized world.
Many of the so-called conventional methods for the remediation or clean-up of chemically contaminated wastes, waters, soils, and sediments have generally involved either the physical removal of the contaminated media or the simple mass transfer of the contaminants from one media (e.g., soil) to another (e.g., air). In general, such physical-treatment technologies do not involve the chemical and/or biological destruction, breakdown, transformation, or detoxification of the contaminants. Two of the most common categories of physical environmental-remediation technologies are the excavation and off-site disposal (or treatment) of contaminated soils and the pumping and subsequent treatment of contaminated ground water.
Recently, there have been significant advancements in the use of biological-treatment processes to treat environmental contamination. A promising category of environmental remediation technologies, phytoremediation, utilizes various types of plants to degrade, transform or extract contaminants. Phytoremediation is growing rapidly in terms of its use and acceptance for treating contaminants in soils, sediments and shallow water bodies, including shallow ground-water aquifers. Another growing field of environmental-remediation technologies, bioremediation, involves the use of various methods and processes to stimulate the activity of microorganisms and fungi to convert chemical compounds into innocuous or less harmful chemical compounds. Phytoremediation and bioremediation technologies generally have lower costs associated with their use and implementation than do the competing physical technologies. Phytoremediation and bioremediation technologies can also be adapted to a broader range of contamination problems and variations in field conditions than other types of remediation technologies.
The most promising phytoremediation and bioremediation technologies provide the additional capability of treating contaminated media in-situ, i.e., in place, without the need for ground-water pumping or soil excavation. For example, there are numerous recent examples of bioremediation methods which have demonstrated the technical feasibility and commercial viability of various means of promoting beneficial remediation processes mediated by indigenous or “native” contaminant-degrading bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms which are naturally present in the contaminated media. The presence of naturally occurring, contaminant-degrading microorganisms in many different types of environmental media has been extensively documented in the scientific literature, and the ability to stimulate beneficial remediation processes mediated by such naturally occurring organisms has helped create growing acceptance of bioremediation methods by regulators and growing demand in the environmental-remediation marketplace.
Despite recent advances in the art of phytoremediation and bioremediation, there remains a need for improved, cost-effective nutrient compositions and application methods which can provide practical and economical means of driving successful phytoremediation and bioremediation programs at contaminated sites throughout the world. The present invention discloses slow-release solid-chemical nutrient compositions and methods for their preparation and use which provide improved means for the prolonged stimulation of biological remediation processes. Hence, the present invention can provide improved means of enhancing the bioremediation and phytoremediation of wastes, soils, sediments, surface-waters, ground-waters and the like caused by releases of petroleum hydrocarbons, organic solvents, MTBE, pesticides, PCBs and other environmental contaminants.
BACKGROUND—DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
With respect to agricultural practices and problems, the discharge of excess nutrients to surface waters, ground-waters and other environment
Geovation Technologies, Inc.
Sayala C.
LandOfFree
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