DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The pending claims are claims 1-21 and 30-35. Although the election, without traverse, was Group I (claims 1-21), the Examiner incorporated claims 30-35 into Group I because claims 30-35 are dependent on claims 1 and/or claim 4.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 22-35 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected method, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 4/30/2025.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-21) in the reply filed on 4/30/2025 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-21 and 30-35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lipson et al., US 2021/0320293, in view of Kawakami, US 5972531.
Regarding claim 1, Lipson et al., teaches a recycling process (abstract; 0007) for directly recycling lithium battery components (abstract) from lithium batteries (abstract) or lithium battery manufacturing scrap (0008; 0012), wherein the batteries or scrap comprise a cathode comprising a cathode active material (abstract; 0007-0008) and carbon particles bound to an aluminum foil (0043; 0048) by a polymeric binder (0027; 0036); an anode comprising an anode active material (0037) coated on a copper foil (0050); and optionally: an electrolyte comprising a lithium electrolyte salt (0007; 0011; 0043) in a non-aqueous solvent (0048; 0053) and a polymeric separator membrane (0049); 0069) the process comprising the steps of:(A) shredding lithium batteries or lithium battery manufacturing scrap (0007; 0012); (B) separating the electrolyte (0036), if present, from the resulting shredded battery fragments (0036) by washing the fragments with an organic solvent (0036); (C) drying the resulting electrolyte-free fragments (0061-0062) from step (B).
Lipson does not teach of step (C) by aspiration with a stream of gas leaving a heavies composition; (E) magnetically separating the heavies composition on a rare earth roll separator apparatus into a magnetic (D) removing at least a majority of separator membrane fragments from the resulting dried fragments fraction comprising cathode fragments, and a non-magnetic fraction; (F) removing the binder and carbon particles from the cathode fragments in the magnetic fraction; (G) recovering the cathode active material remaining after step (F); (H) relithiating the cathode active material; and (I) recovering the resulting relithiated cathode active material.
Kawakami teaches step (C) by aspiration with a stream of gas leaving a heavies composition (col. 7, lines 52-67 and col., 8, lines 1-15); (E) magnetically separating the heavies composition (col. 9, lines 45-54) on a rare earth roll separator apparatus into a magnetic (D) (col. 9, lines 45-54) removing at least a majority of separator membrane fragments from the resulting dried fragments fraction comprising cathode fragments (col. 3, lines 55-61), and a non-magnetic fraction (col. 9, lines 21-34); (F) removing the binder and carbon particles from the cathode fragments in the magnetic fraction (col. 9, lines 45-54); (G) recovering the cathode active material remaining after step (F); (H) relithiating the cathode active material (col. 14, lines 32-67); and (I) recovering the resulting relithiated cathode active material (abstract; col. 14, lines 32-67).
Regarding claim 2, Lipson et al., teaches wherein the binder and carbon are removed by heating the magnetic fraction under an oxygen-containing atmosphere (0020) at a temperature in the range of about 500 to about 1000 0C for a period of time sufficient to burn off the binder and carbon particles (0020).
Regarding claim 3, Lipson et al., teaches wherein the cathode active material is relithiated (0020; 0038) by adding a decomposable lithium-containing compound (0012-0014) thereto and heating the resulting reaction mixture at a temperature in the range of about 400 to about 1000 0C (0012) for a period of time sufficient to fully lithiate the cathode active material (0012; 0038).
Regarding claim 4, Lipson et al., teaches further comprising recovering electrolyte removed in step (B) (0048-0049), and adjusting the solvent and concentrations of the so-recovered electrolyte to obtain a target electrolyte composition (0048-0049).
Regarding claim 5, Lipson et al., does not teach further comprising washing the relithiated cathode active material recovered in step (I) with water.
Regarding claim 5, Kawakami teaches further comprising washing the relithiated cathode active material recovered in step (I) with water (col. 15, lines 54-55; col. 19, lines 51-65).
Regarding claim 6, Lipson et al., teaches further comprising annealing the relithiated cathode active material (0068) in step (I) at a temperature in the range of about 200 to about 1000 0C for up to about 24 hours (0068).
Regarding claim 7, Lipson et al., teaches further comprising separating and recovering aluminum foil (0043; 0048) from the relithiated cathode active material after step (H) (0043; 0048).
Regarding claim 8, Lipson et al., teaches wherein the organic solvent in step (B) is selected from the group consisting of diethyl carbonate (0055), ethyl methyl carbonate (0055) and dimethyl carbonate (0055).
Regarding claim 9, Lipson et al., teaches wherein the decomposable lithium-containing compound is a decomposable lithium salt (0011-0014), and the cathode active material is combined with about 1 to about 50 wt % of the decomposable lithium salt (0020).
Regarding claim 10, Lipson et al., teaches wherein the reaction mixture is heated under an oxygen- containing atmosphere to a temperature of about 400 to 1000 0C (0012) at a heating rate of about 30 to about 300 °C/hour (0012).
Regarding claim 11, Lipson et al. does not teach wherein the magnetic fraction obtained from step (E) is passed over the rare earth roll at least one additional time to separate additional non-magnetic fragments present therein.
Regarding claim 11, Kawakami teaches wherein the magnetic fraction obtained from step (E) (col. 9, lines 21-34).
Although it does not teach the magnetic fraction is passed over the rare earth roll at least one additional time to separate additional non-magnetic fragments present therein, Kawakami teaches:
(3) According to the recovering process of the present invention, for each electrode component, the active material of the active material layer can be readily separated from the collector without deteriorating the active material, where the active materials of the active material layers and the collectors of the electrode components can be effectively and desirably recovered. These components thus recovered can be effectively recycled for the production of a battery.
(4) In the recovering process according to the present invention, it is possible to apply an impact energy or a vibration energy in addition to the thermal energy upon separating and removing the active material layer from the collector. In this case, the separation of the active material layer from the collector is facilitated.
(5) The thermal shock by way of cooling in the present invention is meant so-called shrinkage-expanding treatment for a material by way of cooling (preferably, by way of rapid cooling) only or by way of a combination of cooling (preferably, rapid cooling) and heating. It is possible for the cooling (or the rapid cooling) to be conducted once or to be repeated several times. Similarly, the heating may be also conducted once or repeated several times.
Regarding claim 12, Lipson does not teach wherein the non-magnetic fraction obtained from step (E) .
Regarding claim 12, Kawakami teaches wherein the non-magnetic fraction obtained from step (E) (col. 9, lines 21-34) is passed over the rare earth roll at least one additional time to separate additional magnetic fragments present therein (col. 9, lines 21-34).
Although it does not teach the magnetic fraction is passed over the rare earth roll at least one additional time to separate additional non-magnetic fragments present therein, Kawakami teaches:
(3) According to the recovering process of the present invention, for each electrode component, the active material of the active material layer can be readily separated from the collector without deteriorating the active material, where the active materials of the active material layers and the collectors of the electrode components can be effectively and desirably recovered. These components thus recovered can be effectively recycled for the production of a battery.
(4) In the recovering process according to the present invention, it is possible to apply an impact energy or a vibration energy in addition to the thermal energy upon separating and removing the active material layer from the collector. In this case, the separation of the active material layer from the collector is facilitated.
(5) The thermal shock by way of cooling in the present invention is meant so-called shrinkage-expanding treatment for a material by way of cooling (preferably, by way of rapid cooling) only or by way of a combination of cooling (preferably, rapid cooling) and heating. It is possible for the cooling (or the rapid cooling) to be conducted once or to be repeated several times. Similarly, the heating may be also conducted once or repeated several times.
Regarding claim 13, Lipson et al., teaches wherein the decomposable lithium-containing compound comprises at least one salt selected from the group consisting of lithium hydroxide hydrate (0007-0008; 0013-0014), lithium carbonate (0013;0021; 0043), lithium nitrate (0013; 0021), and a lithium salt of an organic acid (0013; 0021; 0043).
Regarding claim 14, Lipson et al., teaches wherein the cathode active material comprises LiFePO4, or a material of empirical formula LiMO2, wherein M comprises at least one transition metal (0009; 0016; 0046).
Regarding claim 15, Lipson et al., teaches wherein M comprises at least one transition metal selected from the group consisting of Ni, Mn, and Co (0046).
Regarding claim 16, Lipson et al., teaches, wherein the heating is performed in a furnace (0061), a fluidized bed reactor (0018; 0026; 0044), or a rotary kiln (0018; 0026; 0044).
Regarding claim 17, Lipson et al., teaches, wherein the heating is performed in a furnace (0061), a fluidized bed reactor (0018; 0026; 0044), or a rotary kiln (0018; 0026; 0044).
Regarding claim 18, Lipson et al., does not teach further comprising the steps of:(J) washing the non-magnetic fraction from step (E) with water in an acoustic mixer to remove the anode active material from the copper foil; (K) drying solid materials remaining after step (J); (L) removing additional separator membrane from the resulting dried solids from step (K) by aspiration with a stream of gas to produce a second heavies composition; (M) passing the second heavies composition through a rare earth roll separator apparatus to remove additional magnetic cathode fragments therefrom; and (N) sieving the second heavies composition from step (L) to separate and recover the copper foil from any other remaining materials in the heavies fraction.
Regarding claim 18, Kawakami teaches further comprising the steps of:(J) washing the non-magnetic fraction from step (E) with water (col. 2, lines 48-63) in an acoustic mixer to remove the anode active material from the copper foil (col. 22, lines 34-62); (K) drying solid materials remaining after step (J) (col. 18, lines 56-67); (L) removing additional separator membrane from the resulting dried solids from step (K) by aspiration with a stream of gas to produce a second heavies composition (col. 8, lines 25-51); (M) passing the second heavies composition through a rare earth roll separator apparatus to remove additional magnetic cathode fragments therefrom (col. 9, lines 45-54); and (N) sieving the second heavies composition from step (L) (col. 16, lines 10-16) to separate and recover the copper foil from any other remaining materials in the heavies fraction (col. 16, lines 65-67 and col. 17, lines 1-14; col. 18, lines 29-34).
Regarding claim 19, Lipson does not teach further comprising recovering the anode active material from the water after step (J).
Regarding claim 19, Kawakami teaches further comprising recovering the anode active material from the water after step (J).
Regarding claim 20, Lipson does not teach wherein the anode active material comprises graphite.
Regarding claim 20, Kawakami teaches wherein the anode active material comprises graphite (col. 14, lines 45-47; col. 18, lines 12-27).
Regarding claim 21, Lipson does not teach wherein the battery fragments have an average size in the range of about 0.25 to about 2 inches.
However, the battery fragments would not necessarily have a particular size, and would be haphazard in size.
Regarding claim 30, Lipson et al., teaches a cathode for a lithium battery (abstract) comprising the relithiated cathode active material (0020) recovered in step (I) of the process of claim 31 (0020) and carbon particles coated on an aluminum current collector (0043; 0048) with a polymeric binder (0011; 0027; 0039; 0043).
Regarding claim 31, Lipson et al., teaches an electrolyte for a lithium electrochemical cell (0049) comprising the electrolyte recovered from the process of claim 4 (0049-0053).
Regarding claim 32, Lipson et al., teaches lithium electrochemical cell comprising an anode (0049), the cathode of claim 30 (0049), a lithium conductive separator membrane between the anode and the cathode (0028; 0049), and a lithium containing electrolyte contacting the anode, the cathode, and the separator (0049; 0069).
Regarding claim 33, Lipson et al., teaches lithium electrochemical cell comprising an anode, a cathode, a lithium conductive separator membrane (0049; 0069) between the anode and the cathode, and a lithium containing electrolyte (0049; 0069) contacting the anode, the cathode, and the separator, wherein the electrolyte comprises the electrolyte recovered from the process of claim 4 (0069).
Regarding claim 34, Lipson et al., teaches lithium battery comprising a plurality of the electrochemical cells of claim 33 (0037) electrically connected in series, in parallel, or in both series and parallel (0029; 0035).
Regarding claim 35, Lipson et al., teaches lithium battery comprising a plurality of the electrochemical cells of claim 33 (0037) electrically connected in series, in parallel, or in both series and parallel (0029; 0035).
Conclusion
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ANGELA J. MARTIN
Examiner
Art Unit 1727
/ANGELA J MARTIN/Examiner, Art Unit 1727