USPTO grants Bion new patent for removal of phosphorus

Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. (OTC BB/QX: BNET) announced today that it has been notified by the United States Patent and Trademark Office that the patent application entitled "Micro-Electron Acceptor Phosphorus Accumulating Organisms" has been granted. 

The new patent provides enhanced protection for Bion's micro-aerobic digestion process's nutrient uptake capabilities with respect to the removal of phosphorus from livestock waste, as well as a wide range of other waste streams.  The new patent strengthens Bion's patent portfolio by describing the unique ability of the technology's process to use phosphorus accumulating organisms to convert and remove phosphorus, while maintaining nitrogen removal.   

Bion's technology employs a biological nutrient removal process driven by the system's active microbial community that utilizes and metabolizes the waste stream to convert potential pollutants to benign forms that can then be removed from the effluent discharge stream and potentially converted into energy or other valuable by-products. With the publication of this newly granted patent, the Company's present IP portfolio includes six U.S. patents, as well as patents in Canada, New Zealand and Mexico.  Two additional U.S. patents have been applied for and are pending, along with international patent applications under consideration for the European Union, Brazil, Argentina and Australia.

James Morris, Ph.D., P. E., Bion's Chief Technology Officer, stated, "The strength of Bion's patent portfolio continues to grow, this time with expanded protections for the types of microorganisms employed, as well as details on the nutrient removal quantities, by the Bion process.  Bion now has in hand a very broad array of patents, many of them recently issued, which protect variations and enhancements of the core Bion process."

SOURCE Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc.