Indiana Patent of the Month – February 2026

Strategic Analysis Report: Indiana Patent of the Month – February 2026

Systems and Processes for the Recovery of 226Ra from Phosphogypsum (US 2026/0002236)

Strategic Overview

The Indiana Patent of the Month: February 2026

In the contemporary landscape of industrial innovation, where the convergence of environmental stewardship and advanced biotechnology is increasingly paramount, Swanson Reed is proud to announce the Indiana Patent of the Month for February 2026. The recipient of this distinguished accolade is United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2026/0002236, formally titled “Systems and processes for the recovery of 226Ra from phosphogypsum.”

The patent details are as follows:

• Patent Number: US 2026/0002236
• Application Date: June 26, 2024
• Publication Date: January 1, 2026
• Assignee: SpectronRx (via related entities and inventors including John A. Zehner and Michael Haschke)
• Primary Inventor: John A. Zehner

This selection was not the result of a traditional, subjective review board. Instead, it was identified through a rigorous, data-driven methodology utilizing proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. Swanson Reed’s analysts deployed advanced algorithms to screen, analyze, and benchmark over 1,000 potential patents filed or published within the Indiana jurisdiction during the eligibility window. This AI-driven selection process, integral to the Swanson Reed inventionINDEX, evaluates candidates based on a complex weighted matrix of technical novelty, commercial viability, and—most critically—real-world impact. Amidst a competitive field of innovations ranging from automotive manufacturing to agricultural technology, US 2026/0002236 emerged as the statistically significant outlier, selected for its profound potential to resolve critical bottlenecks in both environmental management and oncological healthcare.

The Rationale for Selection: Real-World Impact

The selection of US 2026/0002236 as the Indiana Patent of the Month is predicated on its exceptional “Real-World Impact” score. In the algorithmic assessment, “real-world impact” is defined not merely by theoretical novelty but by the technology’s capacity to solve urgent, existing problems with scalable, economically viable solutions. This patent was identified as a “Keystone Innovation”—a technology that does not merely improve a single product line but supports and stabilizes an entire ecosystem of dependent industries.

The patent describes a breakthrough chemical engineering process for extracting Radium-226 (Ra-226) from phosphogypsum (PG). To the uninitiated, PG is a voluminous, radioactive waste byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer industry, currently stacked in massive piles globally, posing significant environmental liabilities. However, Ra-226 is the essential, irreplaceable precursor material needed to produce Actinium-225 (Ac-225), a radioisotope widely regarded as the “Gold Standard” for Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT) in the treatment of metastatic cancers.

The “Real-World Impact” of this innovation is bipartite and transformative:

1. Environmental Remediation: It provides a commercially viable financial incentive to process and detoxify billions of tons of hazardous waste that currently threaten groundwater and air quality. By extracting the radioactive component, it potentially converts a liability into a usable construction asset.
2. Oncological Supply Chain Security: It secures a domestic, scalable supply chain for a cancer treatment that has shown unprecedented efficacy in late-stage clinical trials but is currently throttled by a severe global shortage of the Ra-226 starting material.

By bridging the gap between heavy industrial waste management and precision nuclear medicine, this patent exemplifies the highest standard of innovation. It transforms a legacy environmental liability into a strategic medical asset, creating value for the agricultural sector, the healthcare system, and the environment simultaneously.

The Context of Innovation: The Dual Crisis

To fully appreciate the superiority of the technology described in US 2026/0002236, it is necessary to examine the magnitude of the two distinct global crises it addresses: the management of phosphogypsum and the supply shortage of Actinium-225.

The Phosphogypsum Challenge: A Global Environmental Burden

Phosphogypsum (PG) is the solid waste generated during the “wet process” production of phosphoric acid, the primary ingredient in phosphate fertilizers. The chemistry of this process dictates that for every ton of phosphoric acid produced, approximately 5 tons of phosphogypsum are generated as a byproduct.

The Scale of the Problem Globally, the fertilizer industry produces between 160 million and 170 million tons of PG annually. In the United States alone, legacy production has resulted in over 1 billion tons of PG stacked in massive, mountainous “gypstacks,” primarily located in Florida, Louisiana, Idaho, and North Carolina. These stacks are engineering behemoths, often covering hundreds of acres and rising hundreds of feet into the air.

The Radiological Hazard The primary reason PG is classified as a waste rather than a byproduct is its radioactivity. Phosphate rock contains Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM), specifically Uranium-238 and its decay progeny. During the acidulation process, the uranium tends to stay in the phosphoric acid (ending up in fertilizer), but the radium—specifically Radium-226 (Ra-226)—coprecipitates with the calcium sulfate and ends up in the phosphogypsum.

Because of this Ra-226 content, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the use of PG in most applications (such as road construction or agriculture) in 1989 under the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP). The EPA determined that the risk of radon gas emission (a decay product of Ra-226) and the potential for leaching into groundwater posed unacceptable risks to public health. Consequently, the industry has been forced to stack this material indefinitely.

The Economic and Environmental Liability

These stacks are significant liabilities. They require perpetual maintenance to prevent acidic water runoff and structural failures. The industry spends millions of dollars annually on water treatment and stack management. Furthermore, the presence of these radioactive stacks renders vast tracts of land unusable and poses a constant risk of environmental catastrophe, such as the Piney Point reservoir failure in Florida.

The Medical Isotope Crisis: The Scarcity of Actinium-225

While the fertilizer industry struggles with too much Radium-226, the medical community is desperate for it. This paradox creates the market opportunity for US 2026/0002236.

Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT) The field of oncology is currently undergoing a revolution with the advent of Targeted Alpha Therapy. Unlike traditional radiation therapy, which blasts a general area with gamma rays, or beta-particle therapies that have a longer range and can damage surrounding healthy tissue, TAT uses alpha-emitting isotopes. Alpha particles are heavy and carry immense energy but travel only a very short distance (a few cell diameters). When attached to a targeting molecule (like an antibody or peptide) that seeks out cancer cells, an alpha emitter acts like a “nanotomic bomb,” destroying the cancer cell’s DNA with high lethality while sparing the adjacent healthy cells.

The “Gold Standard” Isotope: Actinium-225 Among alpha emitters, Actinium-225 (Ac-225) is widely considered the most promising. It has a 10-day half-life, which is long enough to prepare and distribute the drug but short enough to minimize long-term radiation exposure. More importantly, it decays through a cascade of four alpha emissions, delivering a potent therapeutic dose.

The Supply Bottleneck Despite its potential, Ac-225 is in critically short supply. It does not exist in nature in usable quantities. It must be man-made. The most efficient and scalable method to produce high-purity Ac-225 is to bombard a target of Radium-226 with protons in a cyclotron.

Here lies the crisis: The world has almost no commercial supply of separated, high-purity Ra-226. Historically, Ra-226 was used in luminescent paints and medical devices, but production ceased decades ago due to safety concerns. The vast majority of the world’s accessible Ra-226 is locked away in legacy waste or controlled by foreign entities (primarily Russia). The lack of a domestic, reliable supply of Ra-226 is the single greatest barrier to the commercialization of life-saving TAT drugs.

Comparative Analysis and Benchmarking

The AI selection process for the Indiana Patent of the Month involves a rigorous benchmarking exercise. US 2026/0002236 was compared against existing technologies in both the waste management and radioisotope production sectors. The analysis reveals why this technology is superior to current alternatives.

Benchmark 1: Radioisotope Production Methodologies

Currently, the global supply of Actinium-225 is pursued via several competing routes. The table below benchmarks the SpectronRx (US 2026/0002236) approach against the primary competitors in the field.

Superiority Analysis: The technology described in US 2026/0002236 is superior because it secures the upstream supply chain. Competitors like PanTera and NorthStar have developed excellent technologies for converting Ra-226 into Ac-225, but they are vulnerable to the scarcity of the Ra-226 feedstock itself. SpectronRx’s patent positions them as the potential primary supplier for the entire industry. While spallation methods (used by national labs) can produce volume, the product is often contaminated with Actinium-227 (a long-lived impurity), making it difficult to regulate and use in humans. The Ra-226 route described in this patent produces “clean” Ac-225, essential for clinical approval.

Benchmark 2: Phosphogypsum Remediation Technologies

Traditional methods for managing PG focus on containment rather than valorization. The patent offers a paradigm shift.

Superiority Analysis: The patent is superior to traditional management because it fundamentally alters the economic incentives of remediation. Previous attempts to “clean” PG were chemically possible but cost-prohibitive; the value of the recovered gypsum (for drywall) was too low to justify the chemical processing costs. However, by targeting Ra-226, the process generates a revenue stream (medical isotopes) that is orders of magnitude more valuable than the gypsum itself. This high-value product effectively “subsidizes” the environmental cleanup, making the economics of remediation viable where they previously failed.

Technological Superiority of the Patent Claims

Based on the patent disclosure and technical summaries, the technology distinguishes itself through specific process innovations that overcome historical chemical engineering barriers:

1. Selective Leaching Efficiency: The patent describes a “single leaching step” that operates at moderate temperatures (40-70°C) with a reaction time of just 2-6 hours. This is a massive improvement over traditional hydrometallurgical processes that often require high temperatures, high pressures, or aggressive acids (like nitric acid) that destroy the gypsum matrix.
2. Matrix Preservation: Unlike methods that dissolve the entire gypsum crystal to extract the radium (which is energy-intensive and creates new waste streams), this process appears to selectively leach the radium while leaving the gypsum residue intact. This preservation is crucial for the secondary marketability of the treated gypsum.
3. High Extraction Yield: Research snippets indicate an extraction efficiency of up to 80%. Recovering 80% of a trace element (present in parts per trillion) from a solid matrix is a significant chemical engineering achievement, ensuring that the processed gypsum meets lower radioactivity standards.

Real-World Impact: Current and Future Potential

The “Indiana Patent of the Month” award is reserved for innovations with tangible, scalable impact. US 2026/0002236 scores exceptionally high across three dimensions: Healthcare, Economics, and Geopolitics.

Healthcare Impact: Saving Lives

The most immediate and profound impact of this technology is on the patient population fighting metastatic cancers.

• Current State: There are currently over 30 clinical trials for Ac-225 TAT drugs targeting prostate cancer (PSMA therapy), leukemia (CD33), and neuroendocrine tumors. However, commercial adoption is throttled. A single standard Ac-225 generator (derived from Th-229) produces only enough isotope for a few hundred patients a year.
• Patent Impact: A single large-scale facility utilizing this patent to process PG could theoretically recover enough Ra-226 to produce hundreds of thousands of patient doses annually. This moves TAT from a “boutique” therapy for the lucky few to a “Standard of Care” accessible to the general population.
• Multiplier Effect: By unlocking the Ra-226 supply, this patent enables the broader radiopharmaceutical industry. Major pharmaceutical companies (like Clarity Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Bayer) can confidently invest billions in Phase 3 trials and commercialization, knowing that the supply chain exists to support the drug’s manufacturing.

Environmental & Economic Impact: The Circular Economy

This patent represents the ultimate realization of the “Circular Economy” in heavy industry.

• Liability to Asset: Fertilizer companies (e.g., Mosaic, Nutrien) currently view gypstacks as massive liabilities on their balance sheets. This technology allows them to transform these liabilities into strategic assets. By partnering with isotope producers, they can monetize the waste while reducing their long-term environmental risk.
• Construction Materials: Once the Ra-226 is removed, the remaining phosphogypsum is “cleaner” and likely meets regulatory standards for use in wallboard (drywall) or cement. This reduces the need for mining natural gypsum, preserving landscapes and reducing mining emissions.
• Strategic Mineral Recovery: The patent processes also allude to the recovery of “other constituents,” which likely includes Rare Earth Elements (REEs) (Lanthanides) often found in phosphate rock. This adds another layer of economic value and strategic importance, as the US seeks to reduce reliance on foreign REE sources.

Geopolitical Impact: Energy Security and Independence

Radium-226 is a strategic nuclear material. Currently, the US relies heavily on foreign sources for many medical isotopes. Russia has historically held the bulk of the world’s legacy Ra-226 reserves. By domesticating the supply of Ra-226 via Indiana-based technology (SpectronRx), the US strengthens its medical independence and national security. This aligns with Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) initiatives to re-establish domestic isotope production capabilities.

Future Potential Timeline

• 2026-2028: SpectronRx and partners utilize the patent to build pilot plants at major gypstack sites (e.g., Florida or Louisiana). Initial Ra-226 recovery feeds into SpectronRx’s isotope production facilities in Indiana and Europe (Belgium).
• 2030+: As the technology matures, it becomes the standard for new phosphate fertilizer plants—”in-line” filtration of Ra-226 prevents new gypstacks from ever becoming radioactive. The technology could be licensed globally to countries like Morocco, China, and India, which hold the world’s largest phosphate reserves.

R&D Tax Credit Analysis: The 4-Part Test

For companies innovating in high-stakes fields like radiochemistry and environmental engineering, the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit (IRC Section 41) is a critical financial tool. It provides a dollar-for-dollar reduction in federal and state tax liability, incentivizing the high risks associated with technological advancement. However, claiming this credit requires strict adherence to the IRS’s “Four-Part Test.”

Below is a detailed analysis of how a project utilizing the technology in US 2026/0002236 would meet these requirements, and how Swanson Reed assists in substantiating such claims.

The Project: “Development of a Commercial-Scale Ra-226 Extraction Process from Phosphogypsum”

To claim the credit, the taxpayer must demonstrate that their activities satisfy all four prongs of the test for each “business component” (product, process, technique, formula, or invention).

Permitted Purpose

• Definition: The activity must relate to a new or improved product or process, intending to improve performance, reliability, quality, or functionality.
• Application: The project’s purpose is to develop a new manufacturing process for the extraction of Ra-226. The goal is to improve the yield (aiming for extraction efficiency >80%), purity (removal of interfering nuclides like Th-230), and cost-efficiency compared to legacy uranium-tailings processing. This clearly satisfies the requirement of improving the function and performance of a business component.

Elimination of Uncertainty

• Definition: The taxpayer must intend to discover information to eliminate technical uncertainty regarding the capability, method, or appropriate design of the business component.
• Application: At the outset of the project, it was uncertain if Ra-226 could be economically leached from the complex calcium sulfate matrix without dissolving the gypsum entirely. Uncertainty existed regarding the optimal reagent formulation (which chelators to use), the leaching kinetics (optimal time/temperature balance), and the filtration design required to handle millions of tons of feedstock. The information available in the public domain was insufficient to establish the method’s capability, thus satisfying this test.

Process of Experimentation

• Definition: The taxpayer must engage in a systematic process of evaluating one or more alternatives to achieve a result where the capability or method is uncertain.
• Application: The inventors engaged in iterative testing. This likely involved:
  • Hypothesis: “Leachant formulation X will release Ra-226 at 50°C.”
  • Testing: Running bench-scale beaker tests with various acids and chelating agents.
  • Analysis: Measuring leachate radioactivity via alpha-spectroscopy to determine yield and purity.
  • Refinement: Adjusting pH, temperature (ranging 40-70°C), and residence time (2-6 hours) to maximize Ra-226 recovery and minimize impurities.
  • Scaling: Moving from lab bench to pilot columns to test flow rates.

  This systematic iteration is the hallmark of a qualified process of experimentation.

Technological in Nature

• Definition: The process of experimentation must fundamentally rely on principles of the hard sciences (physical, biological, engineering, or computer science).
• Application: The core of the innovation relies on Chemical Engineering, Radiochemistry, and Hydrometallurgy. The work involves understanding crystal lattice structures, solubility products, radioactive decay chains, and mass transfer operations. It is not based on “soft” sciences like economics or consumer psychology.

How Swanson Reed Helps Claim the Credit

Claiming the R&D credit for a patent-generating project like this is lucrative but administratively complex. The IRS scrutinizes these claims heavily, particularly regarding the substantiation of the “Process of Experimentation.” Swanson Reed, as a specialist R&D tax advisory firm, utilizes a distinct methodology to ensure compliance and maximize value.

The “Six-Eye Review” Process Swanson Reed employs a mandatory quality assurance protocol known as the “Six-Eye Review.” Every claim is reviewed by three distinct experts:

• A Qualified Engineer/Scientist: To validate the technical nature of the work. For this patent, a chemical engineer would review the lab notebooks and patent filings to confirm that the “Process of Experimentation” meets the Section 41 standards (e.g., verifying that the failures and iterations were technical in nature).
• A Tax Attorney/Specialist: To ensure the legal interpretation of “Permitted Purpose” aligns with current case law (e.g., ensuring the project isn’t “funded research” if grant money was involved).
• A CPA/Enrolled Agent: To verify the financial calculation of Qualified Research Expenses (QREs), such as the wages of the scientists (Zehner, Haschke), the cost of supplies (reagents, PG samples), and third-party contractor costs (testing labs).

TaxTrex: AI-Driven Documentation Documentation is the Achilles’ heel of R&D claims. The IRS requires “contemporaneous” records—documents created while the research was happening, not recreated years later. Swanson Reed deploys TaxTrex, a proprietary AI software platform.

• Real-Time Tagging: For a project like US 2026/0002236, TaxTrex would integrate with the SpectronRx project management workflow. It would prompt engineers to log “technical uncertainties” and “test results” weekly via automated surveys.
• AI Audit Trails: TaxTrex creates an immutable, time-stamped audit trail. If the IRS audits the claim in 2028, Swanson Reed can produce a detailed log of the experiments conducted in 2024-2025, linking specific dollar amounts to specific experimental failures and successes described in the patent.
• Risk Assessment: The AI proactively vets collected data against IRS compliance benchmarks to identify weak spots in the claim documentation before submission.

The InventionINDEX and Benchmarking By selecting this patent as the “Patent of the Month,” Swanson Reed has already performed a preliminary technical valuation. This data supports the “Business Component” test. The fact that the patent was selected from 1,000 candidates via AI screening serves as strong external validation of the project’s technical novelty and “uncommon” nature, which fortifies the claim against IRS arguments that the work was merely “routine engineering”.

Audit Defense (CreditARMOR) Swanson Reed provides CreditARMOR, an audit defense package. Given the high dollar value of claims associated with industrial chemical engineering (often millions in QREs), audit risk is real. Swanson Reed’s specific expertise in the manufacturing and life sciences sectors (the two sectors bridged by this patent) allows them to defend the “Process of Experimentation” effectively. They can explain to an IRS agent why “recovering 226Ra from phosphogypsum” is not a standard industry practice and required significant, risky experimentation to achieve the results claimed in the patent.

Final Thoughts

The awarding of the Indiana Patent of the Month for February 2026 to US 2026/0002236 highlights a pivotal moment in American industrial innovation. This patent is not merely a clever chemical trick; it is a macroeconomic unlock key. By solving the feedstock constraint for Actinium-225, SpectronRx and its collaborators have laid the foundation for a new era of cancer treatment while simultaneously addressing a decades-old environmental legacy.

For stakeholders in the region, this underscores Indiana’s growing dominance as a hub for nuclear medicine and advanced manufacturing. For the assignees, the rigorous utilization of the R&D Tax Credit—supported by Swanson Reed’s compliance frameworks—will be essential to recoup the substantial capital invested in bringing this “Deep Tech” innovation from the laboratory to the gypstack.

Detailed Technical & Economic Addendum

Deep Dive: The Chemistry of the Innovation

To fully appreciate the “Technological in Nature” aspect of the R&D claim, one must detail the specific chemical hurdles this patent overcomes.

• The Sulfate Problem: Radium sulfate (RaSO4) is notoriously insoluble. In a phosphogypsum stack, the radium is co-precipitated with calcium sulfate. Standard acid leaching often fails to liberate the radium because it is trapped in the crystal lattice.
• The Innovation: US 2026/0002236 utilizes a specific combination of chelating agents (likely involving EDTA or proprietary organic ligands) and conditions that increase the solubility product of the radium preferentially over the calcium. This “selectivity” is the core scientific uncertainty that was resolved.
• Impurity Management: The patent likely addresses the separation of Radium from Barium (chemically very similar) and Thorium. The “purification” steps mentioned likely involve novel ion-exchange resins that have high affinity for divalent radium cations in high-ionic-strength solutions.

Economic Modeling of the Patent Implementation

• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) Reduction: Current Ra-226 prices are high and supply is opaque (often sourced from legacy stockpiles). Producing Ra-226 from waste at <$100,000 per gram (estimated) would revolutionize the economics of Actinium-225 production.
• Revenue Potential: With Ac-225 doses priced at $5,000 – $10,000, and a patient population of >100,000/year for prostate cancer alone, the Total Addressable Market (TAM) exceeds $1 Billion annually. This patent controls the entry point to that market.

Strategic Recommendations for the Patent Holder

1. Maximize R&D Credits: Ensure all “scale-up” activities (pilot plant construction, flow-sheet optimization) are captured as R&D. These often qualify as “Process Improvements” under Section 41.
2. State-Level Incentives: Indiana offers supplemental R&D incentives. The “Patent of the Month” status should be leveraged in negotiations with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) for further grants and tax abatements.
3. Licensing Strategy: Consider licensing the “remediation” aspect of the patent to fertilizer majors (Mosaic) while retaining exclusive rights to the “isotope recovery” aspect. This dual-model maximizes the patent’s utility across two distinct industries.