Patents

Green Chemistry patent portfolio for value-added forest products: Our research has generated several patent families, with submissions assigned, granted or pending in Canada, the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Europe. These describe a radically new way to make carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals (cCNC) from Quebec industry wood pulp and waste biomass; how to make cCNC-based microbeads that impart special optical properties to human skin for cosmetic applications; how to make protein-containing microbeads; how to make porous microbeads for skin care that replace environmentally damaging microplastics; and a major breakthrough to manufacture CNC-based microbead powders that can be re-dispersed in water and polar organic media at the nanoscale. The latter innovation defeats the bottleneck of needing to remove water from CNC dispersions, resulting in major cost savings and opening new research opportunities to develop classes of high-performance nanocomposites from CNC.

 

Green Chemistry Patents

  • Porous Cellulose Microparticles and Methods of Manufacture Thereof. Canada. CA 3138885. 2022/05/06. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P., Mores, Timothy, Rak, Monika, Hu, Zhen , Bateman, Mary.  New way to make porous cellulose nanocrystal-derived microbeads with tunable porosity. Application in water remediation, drug uptake and release, cosmetics and skin care
  • Porous Cellulose Microparticles and Methods of Manufacture Thereof. United States of America. 62/846,703. 2020/05/06. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: M.P. Andrews, T. Morse, M. Rak, Z. Hu,  M. Bateman Method to make porous cellulose microbeads from cellulose nanocrystals that will have desirable optical properties and uptake oil from the skin for cosmetic and personal care applications. 
  • Porous cellulose particles, their manufacturing methods, and cosmetics. Japan. JP2020527671A. 2019/06/28. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P. Morse, Timothy Rak, Monika Hu, Zhen, Bateman, Mary. New way to make porous cellulose nanocrystal-derived microbeads with tunable porosity. Application in water remediation, drug uptake and release, cosmetics and skin care.
  • Porous cellulose particles, their manufacturing methods, and cosmetics. France. EP 20804895.9. 2020/05/06. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P. Morse, Timothy Rak, Monika Hu, Zhen, Bateman, Mary. New way to make porous cellulose nanocrystal-derived microbeads with tunable porosity. Application in water remediation, drug uptake and release, cosmetics and skin care.
  • Porous cellulose particles, their manufacturing methods, and cosmetics. Korea, South. 1020217040519. 2020/05/06. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P. Morse, Timothy Rak, Monika Hu, Zhen, Bateman, Mary. New way to make porous cellulose nanocrystal-derived microbeads with tunable porosity. Application in water remediation, drug uptake and release, cosmetics and skin care.
  • Method for producing functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose and functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose thereby produced. United States of America. 17/172,622. 2021/07/01. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and Timothy Morse. This is a divisional patent that covers charge reversal on the CNC. It broadens the versatility of by providing a process to make polyelecrolyte complexes to adjust the surface potential of CNC without the formation of covalent bonds
  • Method for producing functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose and functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose thereby produced. China. 201580046592.3. Patent Status: Granted/Issued Year Issued: 2021. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and Timothy Morse.
  • Method for producing functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose and functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose thereby produced. United States of America. US 10968283. Patent Status: Granted/Issued Year Issued: 2021. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and Timothy Morse.
  • Method for producing functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose and functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose thereby produced. Canada. CA 3007655. Patent Status: Granted/Issued Year Issued: 2020. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and Timothy Morse. The process is used to make nanocrystalline cellulose with carboxylic acid functional groups by a catalyst-free aqueous hydrogen peroxide method. It also covers the material produced (carboxylated-CNC), the process/material to reverse surface charge of the CNC and its micronization to a powder created by spray drying both the negatively and positively charge carboxylated-CNC material. 
  • Method for producing functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose and functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose thereby produced. France. EP 15826572.8. Patent Status: Granted/Issued Year Issued: 2019. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and Timothy Morse The European patent covers UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland 
  • Method for producing functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose and functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose thereby produced. Korea, South. 10-2017-7004362. Patent Status: Granted/Issued Year Issued: 2019. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and Timothy Morse.
  • Method for producing functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose and functionalized nanocrystalline cellulose thereby produced. Japan 2017-525659. Patent Status: Granted/Issued Year Issued: 2019. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and Timothy Morse.
  • Microparticles of cellulose nanocrystals with pigment nanoparticles bound thereto and method of production thereof. Canadian No. 3,124,455. Patent Status: Granted (Andrews, Mark P. Bateman, M., Morse, T. Rak, M.)
  • Microparticles of cellulose nanocrystals with pigment nanoparticles bound thereto and method of production thereof. United States of America. 12083195 B. Patent Status: Granted (Andrews, Mark P. Bateman, M., Morse, T. Rak, M.)
  • Microparticles of cellulose nanocrystals with pigment nanoparticles bound thereto and method of production thereof. France. EP 20806006A. 2020/05/06. Patent Status: Pending (Andrews, Mark P. Bateman, M., Morse, T. Rak, M.)
  • Microparticles comprising cellulose nanocrystals aggregated with proteins and cosmetic uses thereof. Japan. JP,2022-531941, A. 2020/05/06. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P. (Canada) Morse, Timothy (Canada) Rak, Monika (Canada) Wu, Junqi (Canada) Hu, Zhen (Canada) Bateman, Mary (Canada).
  • Microparticles comprising cellulose nanocrystals aggregated with proteins and cosmetic uses thereof. Korea, South. KR20217040556A. 2020/05/06. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P. (Canada) Morse, Timothy (Canada) Rak, Monika (Canada) Wu, Junqi (Canada) Hu, Zhen (Canada) Bateman, Mary (Canada).
  • Microparticles comprising cellulose nanocrystals aggregated with proteins and cosmetic uses thereof. Canada CA 3138810. 2020/05/06. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P. (Canada) Morse, Timothy (Canada) Rak, Monika (Canada) Wu, Junqi (Canada) Hu, Zhen (Canada) Bateman, Mary (Canada). Method to make silk fibroin and other protein-containing microbeads from cellulose nanocrystals.
  • Microparticles comprising cellulose nanocrystals aggregated with proteins and cosmetic uses thereof. United States of America. 62/846,281. 2019/05/10. Patent Status: Pending. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P. (Canada) Morse, Timothy (Canada) Rak, Monika (Canada) Wu, Junqi (Canada) Hu, Zhen (Canada) Bateman, Mary (Canada).
  • Nanoredispersible microparticles of dried cellulose nanocrystals and method of production thereof . Canadian  No. 3,123,643,  Patent Status: Granted. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P., Khababullin, A. Morse, T. Farooque, M. Rak, M.
  • Nanoredispersible microparticles of dried cellulose nanocrystals and method of production thereof. France. EP 20755348.8. 2020/02/11. Patent Status: Granted. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P., Khababullin, A. Morse, T. Farooque, M. Rak, M.
  • Nanoredispersible microparticles of dried cellulose nanocrystals and method of production thereof. United States of America. US11421118B2. Patent Status: Granted. Inventors: Andrews, Mark P., Khababullin, A. Morse, T. Farooque, M. Rak, M.
  • Nanoredispersible microparticles of dried cellulose nanocrystals and method of production thereof. United States of America. US11421118B2. Patent Status: Granted; Inventors: Andrews, Mark P., Khababullin, A. Morse, T. Farooque, M. Rak, M.
  • Cellulose Based Organic Pigments. Canada. CA 3002430. Patent Status: Granted/Issued
    Year Issued: 2018 Inventors: M. Andrews and T. Morse. The patent covers a process to make nanocrystalline cellulose pigment particles by "molecule-by-molecule dyeing" of individual nanocrystals and processing them into vibrantly colored powders. The process is unique for the way that color mixing is achieved directly on the nanocrystal to open pathways to cover the entire CIE color space. 
  • Cellulose Based Organic Pigments. China 108603042B. Patent Status: Granted 2019. Inventors: M. Andrews and T. Morse, granted.  
  • Cellulose Based Organic Pigments. European Union EU 15826572.8. Patent status: Granted. 2019. Inventors: M. Andrews and T. Morse. 
  • Cellulose Based Organic Pigments. Korea, South. No. 10-2018-7014543. Patent status: Granted 09-05-2019. Inventors: M. Andrews and T. Morse. 

  • Cellulose Based Organic Pigments. Japan No. 10-2018-7014543. Patent status: Granted 09-05-2019. Inventors: Mark P. Andrews and T. Morse.

     

Professor Andrews has 11 other patent disclosures that cover the domains of photonics, display technologies and catalysis.

 

Entrepreneurship

With colleagues and former students, Professor Andrews has spun out 3 companies from McGill. While focussing on their academic studies, he encourages his students  to be sensitive to the opportunities that might bring fundamental research into purposeful and beneficial outcomes, often with a focus on planetary well-being.