IP Library Granted Patent US 12693276
Granted Patent B2
US 12693276 · App. 17/624,396 · Granted Jul 28, 2026

Method for determining origin of carbon source of chemical substance

Inventors: Kanetomo Sato (Tokyo, JP); Norio Numata (Tokyo, JP)
Assignee: SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO., LTD.
G01N30/88G01N33/442G01N2030/8809
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12693276
App. No.
17/624,396
Granted
Jul 28, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

Provided is a method for determining origin of carbon source of chemical substance, which makes it possible to determine whether resource-recycled carbon is used as a carbon raw material from a chemical substance in various goods. The method for determining origin of carbon source of chemical substance includes: a step S 1 of acquiring a carbon-14 content rate R 1 of a standard chemical substance having carbon element in which carbon has been recycled as a resource; a step S 2 of acquiring a carbon-14 content rate R 2 of a chemical substance to be identified; a step S 3 of calculating a ratio (R 2 /R 1 ) of the content rate R 2 to the content rate R 1 ; and a step S 4 of determining that a carbon raw material in the chemical substance to be identified contains resource-recycled carbon based on the ratio (R 2 /R 1 ).

Claims (20)

1 . A method for determining whether a main chemical substance comprises a resource-recycled carbon, the method comprising:

providing a standard chemical substance having carbon element in which carbon has been recycled as a resource;

measuring a carbon-14 content rate Ri of the standard chemical substance having carbon element in which carbon has been recycled as a resource, the carbon-14 content rate R 1 being measured by a method selected from the group consisting of liquid scintillation counting, gas proportional counting, and accelerator mass spectrometry,

wherein the content rate R 1 is an average value of carbon-14 content rates of a plurality of standard chemical substances;

providing a chemical substance to be identified, the chemical substance to be identified being selected from the group consisting of ethanol, a polymer having a constituent unit derived from ethylene, butadiene, propylene, isobutene, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, ethyl acetate, methyl (meth)acrylate, ethyl-t-butyl ether ethylene glycol, an ester composition, an acrylic acid, an aminohexanoic acid, diethyl carbonate, a polyester resin, a polyethylene resin (PE), a polyethylene terephthalate resin (PET), a polypropylene resin (PP), a polyisobutylene resin, a polymethyl methacrylate resin (PMMA), ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM), a polybutylene terephthalate resin (PBT), a polyethylene furanoate resin (PEF), and a polyurethane resin (PU);

measuring a carbon-14 content rate R 2 of the chemical substance to be identified, the carbon-14 content rate R 2 being measured by a method selected from the group consisting of liquid scintillation counting, gas proportional counting, and accelerator mass spectrometry;

calculating a ratio (R 2 /R 1 ) of the content rate R 2 to the content rate R 1 ; and

determining that the chemical substance to be identified contains resource-recycled carbon from the ratio (R 2 /R 1 ),

wherein the chemical substance to be identified contains resource-recycled carbon when a ratio (R 2 /R 1 ) is 0.5 or more and 2.0 or less; and

producing one or more selected from the group consisting of ethanol, ethylene, and a polymer from the chemical substance to be identified responsive to determining that the chemical substance to be identified contains resource-recycled carbon.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the carbon raw material in the chemical substance to be identified comprises the resource-recycled carbon when the ratio (R 2 /R 1 ) is 1.0.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the standard chemical substance is ethanol.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the chemical substance to be identified is one chosen from the group consisting of ethylene and polyethylene resins.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the average value of carbon-14 content rates of a plurality of the standard chemical substances is an average value of carbon-14 content rates of the standard chemical substances produced at a plurality of sites.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the average value of carbon-14 content rates of a plurality of the standard chemical substances is an average value of carbon-14 content rates of the standard chemical substances produced in a plurality of times.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the content rate R 1 is a carbon-14 content rate of each production lot in which the standard chemical substance is produced from resource-recycled carbon.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , comprising a step of calculating [100−|(R 2 /R 1 )−1|×100] (%) as a usage rate of the resource-recycled carbon.

9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ethanol is produced from the chemical substance to be identified responsive to determining that the chemical substance to be identified contains resource-recycled carbon.

10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ethylene is produced from the chemical substance to be identified responsive to determining that the chemical substance to be identified contains resource-recycled carbon.

11 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer is produced from the chemical substance to be identified responsive to determining that the chemical substance to be identified contains resource-recycled carbon.