ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,233,397, issued on Feb. 25, was assigned to CHINA PETROLEUM & CHEMICAL Corp. (Beijing) and SINOPEC QILU COMPANY (Shandong, China).

"Composite material and use thereof in desulfurization" was invented by Cuicui Xu (Shandong, China), Aihua Liu (Shandong, China), Feng Han (Shandong, China), Jianli Liu (Shandong, China), Zengrang Liu (Shandong, China), Weidong Tao (Shandong, China), Wenzhi Chang (Shandong, China) and Caishan Lyu (Shandong, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A composite material is used for desulfurization. The composite material contains activated carbon, alkali metal oxides, silicon oxides, iron oxides, and rare earth ele...