ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,291,679, issued on May 6, was assigned to Enlighten Innovations Inc. (Calgary, Canada).

"Purification and conversion processes for asphaltene-containing feedstocks" was invented by Mykola Makowsky (Menlo Park, Calif.), Michael Zenaitis (Calgary, Canada) and Joseph Turcotte (Calgary, Canada).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present technology provides a process comprising: contacting a hydrocarbon feedstock with an effective amount of sodium metal and an effective amount of exogenous capping agent at a temperature of 250-500deg C., to produce a mixture of sodium salts and a converted feedstock, wherein the hydrocarbon feedstock comprises...