All The Claims

1. A water treatment method, for substantially eliminating scale buildup in a water processing facility, the method comprising the steps:
(I) accepting a scale formation standard value (S) gM3 as an amount of scale formation that would occur in the water processing facility from a cubic meter of water having 360 ppm total hardness and 250 ppm alkali hardness and 7.5 pH and at 25 degrees Celsius, wherein said facility is operating at a normalized water throughput condition;
(II) measuring water from a water source for total hardness (H) ppm, alkali hardness (A) ppm, pH (P), and temperature (C) Celsius;
(III) calculating a scale removal target (R) using a formula R=10*S*1+((H\u2212360)360)+((A\u2212250)250)+((P\u22127.5)7.5)+((C\u221225)25), wherein said facility is sized as proportional to operating at the normalized water throughput condition; and
(IV) substantially removing a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of the water source water just prior to entry of said water into the water processing facility.
2. A water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein accepting includes that the scale formation standard value (S) is 0.2 gM3, and calculating includes that the water processing facility is a Reverse Osmosis process, the normalized water throughput condition is a water velocity of 1.5 meters per second through 1 meter long osmotic pressure separation tubes respectively of 4 inch diameter.
3. A water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein accepting includes that the scale formation standard value (S) is 0.3 gM3, and calculating includes that the water processing facility is a Water Cooling process, the normalized water throughput condition is a water velocity of 1.5 meters per second and 300 tons of refrigeration cooling capacity having a 150 M3hour circulation to achieve a 5 Celsius degree temperature difference.
4. A water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein accepting includes that the scale formation standard value (S) is 0.5 gM3, and calculating includes that the water processing facility is a Water Heating process, the normalized water throughput condition is a water velocity of 1.5 meters per second and 300,000 Kilo-calorieskg heat capacity for a heating temperature input of 60 Celsius degrees.
5. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein measuring total hardness is substantially measuring dissolved calcium.
6. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein measuring alkali hardness is substantially measuring dissolved carbonates.
7. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein substantially removing a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of water is removing from about R2 to about 5R scale from each cubic meter of water.
8. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein removing a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of water is removing more than about 0.1% of the dissolved scale albeit less than 10% of the dissolved scale.
9. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein removing a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of water includes that removing some bio-life using activated chloride is substituted for removing a functionally equivalent part of the R scale.
10. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein removing a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of water includes that removing some dissolved metals is substituted for removing a functionally equivalent part of the R scale.
11. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein removing a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of water is by electrolysis.
12. The water treatment method according to claim 1 wherein removing a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of water includes electrolysis.
13. A water treatment device, for substantially eliminating scale buildup in a water processing facility, the device comprising a water flow through conduit wherein at least one active electrochemical altering element removes a quantity of about R scale from each cubic meter of water just prior to entry of said water into the water processing facility, such that R=10*S*1+((H\u2212360)360)+((A\u2212250)250)+((P\u22127.5)7.5)+((C\u221225)25) and (S) gM3 is an amount of scale formation that would occur in the water processing facility if it were directly accepting a standardized cubic meter of water having 360 ppm total hardness and 250 ppm alkali hardness and 7.5 pH and at 25 degrees Celsius, wherein said facility is operating at a normalized water throughput condition, and such that physical properties total hardness (H) ppm, alkali hardness (A) ppm, pH (P), and temperature (C) Celsius are metrics substantially equivalent to actual values for these respective physical properties for water entering the conduit.
14. A water treatment method substantially as herein-before described and illustrated and characterized by, just prior to entry of each predetermined quantity of water into a commercial water flow-through processing facility, removing more than about 0.1% of dissolved scale from the water quantity albeit less than 10% of dissolved scale from the water quantity; thereby substantially eliminating scale buildup in the water processing facility.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A device for recharging a fuel reservoir of a direct oxidation fuel cell used to power an electrical appliance, the device comprising:
A. an inlet fitting on the electrical appliance, the inlet fitting providing access to the fuel reservoir, said inlet fitting conforming substantially to a standardized specification; and
B. a canister that mates with the inlet fitting, the canister having a chamber containing fuel for the fuel cell, mating of the canisters with the inlet fitting provides access to the reservoir, said inlet fitting being keyed so that only canisters having a corresponding electrical key can access the inlet fitting.
2. The device for recharging a fuel reservoir of a direct oxidation fuel cell defined in claim 1, wherein said electrical key comprises circuitry in said canister that responds to a signal from a fuel cell.
3. The device for recharging a fuel reservoir of a direct oxidation fuel cell as defined in claim 1, further comprising:
A. a transponder configured on said canister that emits a signal of a particular frequency; and
B. said fuel cell having a receiver thereon configured to receive signals from canisters whose transponders emit the correct signal response, whereby access is provided to the reservoir from such canister, and not other canisters.
4. A method of recharging a fuel reservoir of a direct oxidation fuel cell used to power an electrical appliance, the method comprising the steps of:
A. providing an inlet fitting on the appliance, the inlet fitting providing sealed access to the reservoir, said inlet fitting conforming substantially to a standardized specification;
B. configuring canisters that mate with the inlet fitting, the canisters having chambers containing fuel for the fuel cell, mating of the canisters with the inlet fitting opening the sealed access; and
C. keying the inlet fitting so that only canisters having corresponding electrical keys can access the inlet fitting.
5. The method as defined in claim 4 wherein said keying step includes the further steps of responding at said canister to a signal from the fuel cell; and
accepting at said inlet fitting of said fuel cell only fuel from a canister adapted to emit and receive the correct response.
6. The method defined in claim 4 in which exhausted canisters are disposed of.
7. The method defined in claim 4 in which exhausted canisters are refilled.
8. The method defined in claim 4 in which exhausted canisters are recycled.

1. A method comprising:
identifying, by a computer-based system for evaluating financial risk, a product order associated with a greatest financial risk by comparing a plurality of product orders to a predefined list of products, wherein each of a plurality of products in the predefined list of products is ranked from a product associated with a greatest financial risk to a product associated with a least financial risk; and
authorizing, by the computer-based system, only the product order associated with the greatest financial risk.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning, by the computer-based system, a plurality of priority orders to a plurality of product orders.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of priority orders are included in the predefined list of products.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of priority orders include a ranking of the plurality of product orders from greatest financial risk to least financial risk.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the product order associated with the greatest financial risk is the product order associated with a greatest quantity of products.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the computer-based system and to the financial institution, an authorization request for the product order associated with a greatest priority order and an authorization request for the product order associated with a greatest quantity of products.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined list of products is defined by the financial institution and associated with a list of products having a financial risk.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique product code is defined by the financial institution and included in the predefined list of products.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the product order includes at least one of: a unique product code and a quantity.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorizing is based on an assessment of financial risk associated with the product order.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorizing includes transmitting an authorization request only for the product order associated with the greatest financial risk to a financial institution and receiving an authorization decision from the financial institution.
12. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system for evaluating financial risk, cause the computer-based system to be capable of performing operations comprising:
identifying, by the computer-based system, a product order associated with a greatest financial risk by comparing a plurality of product orders to a predefined list of products, wherein each of a plurality of products in the predefined list of products is ranked from a product associated with a greatest financial risk to a product associated with a least financial risk; and
authorizing, by the computer-based system, only the product order associated with the greatest financial risk.
13. A system comprising:
a tangible, non-transitory memory communicating with a merchant processor for evaluating financial risk,
the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the merchant processor, cause the merchant processor to perform operations comprising:
identifying, by the merchant processor, a product order associated with a greatest financial risk by comparing a plurality of product orders to a predefined list of products, wherein each of a plurality of products in the predefined list of products is ranked from a product associated with a greatest financial risk to a product associated with a least financial risk; and
authorizing, by the merchant processor, only the product order associated with the greatest financial risk.
14. The system of claim 13, further comprising assigning, by the computer-based system, a plurality of priority orders to a plurality of product orders.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of priority orders are included in the predefined list of products.
16. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of priority orders include a ranking of the plurality of product orders from greatest financial risk to least financial risk.
17. The system of claim 13, wherein the product order associated with the greatest financial risk is the product order associated with a greatest quantity of products.
18. The system of claim 13, further comprising transmitting, by the computer-based system and to the financial institution, an authorization request for the product order associated with a greatest priority order and an authorization request for the product order associated with a greatest quantity of products.
19. The system of claim 13, wherein the product order includes at least one of: a unique product code and a quantity.
20. The system of claim 13, wherein the authorizing is based on an assessment of financial risk associated with the product order.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A method of dispensing viscous material from a dispenser of the type having a chamber, an opening to deliver viscous material to the chamber, a dispensing bore in fluid communication with the chamber, and a piston movable within the dispensing bore, the method comprising:
moving the piston in a direction away from the dispensing bore;
delivering viscous material to the chamber through the opening;
moving the piston in a direction toward the dispensing bore;
cutting off the delivery of viscous material by blocking the opening with the piston as the piston moves toward the dispensing bore; and
ejecting a quantity of viscous material.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the quantity of viscous material ejected by the dispenser is substantially equal to the volume of the piston moved into the dispensing bore.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising varying the size of the opening into the chamber.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising varying the amount of viscous material ejected by varying a length of movement of the piston within the dispensing bore.
5. A method of dispensing viscous material from a dispenser of the type having a chamber, a dispensing bore in fluid communication with the chamber, and a piston movable within the dispensing bore, the method comprising:
moving the piston in a direction away from the dispensing bore;
delivering viscous material to the chamber through the opening;
moving the piston in a direction toward the dispensing bore; and
ejecting a quantity of viscous material substantially equal to the volume of the piston moved into the dispensing bore.
6. A method of dispensing viscous material from a dispenser of the type having a chamber, a barrel having an elongated bore formed therein, the barrel being disposed in the chamber, a dispensing bore in fluid communication with the chamber and the elongated bore of the barrel, and a piston disposed within the elongated bore of the barrel and configured to enter the dispensing bore to dispense a quantity of viscous material, the method comprising:
selecting a barrel to be disposed within the chamber;
selecting a piston to be disposed within the elongated bore of the barrel;
installing the barrel and the piston within the chamber;
moving the piston in a direction away from the dispensing bore;
delivering viscous material to the dispensing bore;
moving the piston in a direction toward the dispensing bore; and
ejecting a quantity of viscous material.
7. The method of claim 6, further comprising controlling a flow rate of the viscous material from the dispenser by causing the piston to dwell for a controlled period of time each time the piston ejects a quantity of viscous material.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein ejecting a quantity of viscous material comprises moving material from the dispensing bore through a small-diameter bore, the small-diameter bore being smaller in diameter than the dispensing bore.