Orbite receives U.S. fly ash monetization patent

Orbite Technologies Inc. announced that further to its October 6, 2015 press release, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the Company U.S. patent No. 9,181,603 titled "Processes for Treating Fly Ash".

The patent covers the selective extraction and recovery of valuable elements such as scandium, gallium, rare earths and rare metals, alumina, magnesium oxide and titanium dioxide from fly ash, a residue from coal combustion, using Orbite's chloride-based technology.

This patent clears the way for Orbite to pursue the commercial application of its unique technology in the U.S., where upwards of 75 million tonnes of fly ash is being produced on an annual basis, representing a significant environmental and economic liability. By being able to extract all individual components of value selectively, the Orbite process promises to be the only viable means available to truly turn these liabilities into exploitable assets.

The company has successfully applied for accelerated examination and processing under the Patent Prosecution Highway in jurisdictions participating in this program. Furthermore, since the parent patent applications were deemed to contain a plurality of inventions, the company filed a divisional patent application in Canada and a continuation patent application in the United States, and accordingly anticipates receiving additional patents for this family.