> I have tried many searches and cannot get a handle
> on it, can you remember what you were searching for
> when you came across it?

You need to search for the patent number from
the search facility on http://www.uspto.gov .

Here's the full text of the patent:

        http://tinyurl.com/iqm4

(The full URL is hundreds of characters long,
so I'll use a redirect instead.)

In brief, one adsorbs the contaminant into
activated charcoal, and then removes the charcoal
via filtration.

The steps in this process, as patented by Bayer,
are as follows:

a) Melt the wax

b) Add activated charcoal (20 to 50 grams per liter)

c) "Prepare a homogeneous suspension" (set Mixmaster to "Blend")

d) "Maintain the suspension for a period of time sufficient to
   adsorb coumaphos from the beeswax onto the charcoal"
   (Stir for from 30 to 60 mins so it won't settle out.)

e) Filter the suspension in a pressure filter at a pressure
   differential across the filter medium of at least 1 bar
   (and should be 4 to 6 bar if you read with care.  "One bar"
   is about 15 pounds per square inch, or "one atmosphere".
   For Europeans, 1 bar = 100 kilopascals [kPa]. )

This recipe is highly "obvious", as this exact method is used for
LOTS of "filter out the junk" applications.  I don't know what was
considered "patentable", as I'd be willing to bet that every
college student, and many of the students at better high schools
have performed these exact steps in one application or another.

I sure hope that they do not intend to ask for license fees
to use this process, as the result would be funny, in a twisted
sort of way:

  Beekeeper:  "Mites and beetles are bothering my bees!"

  Bayer:      "Here, buy my strips - they'll work."

  Beekeeper:  "Are they safe?"

  Bayer:      "Of course - we wouldn't sell anything that
               was not SAFE, for Pete's sake!"

  Beekeeper:  "OK, I'll give it a try..."

(Later...)

  Beekeeper:  "Your strips have contaminated my wax!
               What do I do?"

  Bayer:      "Pay me a license fee, and we'll let you
               use our 'secret process'."

  Beekeeper:  "But your patent is bogus - I did that
               same stuff in chemistry class years ago!"

  Bayer:      "We employ more lawyers than the total
               number of beekeepers in the USA..."

  Beekeeper:  "Oh, I see your point.  Here's your money."

(Even Later...)

  Beekeeper:  "Hey Bayer, I used your 'secret process',
               and I removed your coumaphos from my wax.
               Can I have your shipping address?"

  Bayer:      "Uh, why?"

  Beekeeper:  "I'm returning your chemicals to you.
               I don't want them, and I removed them from
               my wax, where they had no business being."

  Bayer:      "You can't do THAT!  That's a nasty
               organophosphate!  We don't want it!"

  Beekeeper:  "Funny, you never mentioned that when
               you sold the strips to me..."

  Bayer:      "Regardless, I'm not giving you an address."

  Beekeeper:  "OK then, I'll ship it all to Werner Wenning,
              your Chairman of the Board of Management at
              your corporate headquarters, '51368 Leverkusen'
              in Germany, as we simply have no approved method
              for disposal of this chemical here in the USA."


                        jim

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