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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I and species (a-ii) in the reply filed on 06 February 2026 is acknowledged. Accordingly, claims 1-4 and 6-8 are under full consideration.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3-4, 6, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Myoi (WO-2012017916-A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Myoi discloses a gas manufacturing apparatus that manufactures a produced gas containing carbon monoxide by bringing a raw material gas containing carbon dioxide (system for converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide; see [0001]) into contact with a reductant that reduces the carbon dioxide (directly contacting a metal oxide having oxygen ion conductivity and reversible oxygen deficiency with blast furnace gas or converter gas under heating, and reducing carbon dioxide in the blast furnace gas or converter gas; see [0008]), the gas manufacturing apparatus comprising: a raw material gas supply section that supplies the raw material gas (blast furnace gas or converter gas generated from a steel mill is directly supplied to a conversion device 4; see [0016]); a reaction section that is connected to the raw material gas supply section and that includes at least one reactor storing the reductant (a conversion agent placed inside the conversion device 4 under heating, thereby converting the carbon dioxide gas in the blast furnace gas or converter gas into carbon monoxide gas; see [0016]); and a protector that is provided between the raw material gas supply section and the reactor (blast furnace gas or converter gas is supplied to a carbon dioxide separation and recovery device 5 to separate carbon dioxide, and this carbon dioxide gas is supplied to a conversion device 4; see [0017]) and that contains a substance capable of capturing a component that reduces an activity of the reductant by contact with the reductant, the component being contained in the raw material gas (In the carbon dioxide separation apparatus 5, carbon dioxide is separated using known methods used to separate carbon dioxide from the mixed gas, such as absorption methods including chemical absorption, solid chemical absorption, and physical absorption; see [0017]).
Regarding Claim 3, Myoi discloses the gas manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reactor stores the reductant that produces the carbon monoxide by a reduction reaction of the carbon dioxide caused by contact with the raw material gas (conversion agent placed inside the conversion device 4; see [0016]), and is capable of separating at least a part of oxygen atoms released from the carbon dioxide, in the system of the reduction reaction (oxygen vacancies present on the surface of the metal oxide combine with oxygen in carbon dioxide, eliminating the oxygen vacancies on the surface and converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide; see [0020]).
Regarding Claim 4, Myoi discloses the gas manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the at least one reactor includes a plurality of reactors (the converstion device 20 is equipped with two batch-type reactors 21 and 22; see [0040]) that store a reducing agent as the reductant (The aforementioned conversion agent 24 can be placed inside each of the reaction devices 21 and 22; see [0040]), where the reducing agent contains a metal oxide that reduces carbon dioxide (a metal oxide having oxygen ion conductivity and reversible oxygen deficiency is brought into contact with carbon dioxide separated from blast furnace gas or converter gas under heating, and the carbon dioxide is reduced; see [0009]), the gas manufacturing apparatus further comprises a reducing gas supply section that supplies a reducing gas (it is desirable to use an economically advantageous reducing gas; see [0030]) containing a reducing substance that reduces the reducing agent oxidized by contact with the carbon dioxide (The conversion agent in the conversion device 4 is oxidized by contact with carbon dioxide within the conversion device 4… coke oven gas contains a necessary and sufficient amount of hydrogen for the strong reduction of the aforementioned conversion agent; see [0030]), each of the reactors is connected to at least one of the raw material gas supply section and the reducing gas supply section, where the raw material gas and the reducing gas to be supplied to each of the reactors are switchable or the reducing agent is movable between the reactors (The switching valve 23 has input sections 23a and 23b that are connected to the blast furnace gas source and the coke oven gas source, respectively. Furthermore, the switching valve 23 has output sections 23c and 23d that are connected to each of the reaction devices 21 and 22, respectively; see [0040]).
Regarding Claim 6, Myoi discloses the gas manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising gas lines independent from each other, which are connected to the respective reactors (see [0040] and Fig. 3, Parts 23, 23a, 23b, 23c, and 23d).
Regarding Claim 8, Myoi discloses the gas manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the metal oxide contains at least one selected from metal elements belonging to the groups 3 to 12 (Examples of metal oxides having such properties include cerium oxide; see [0022]).
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 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Myoi (WO-2012017916-A1) in view of Takayuki (JP-2013252987-A).
Regarding Claim 2, Myoi discloses the gas manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1.
Myoi does not explicitly disclose the component(s) to be separated from the carbon dioxide containing raw material source gas. However, Myoi discloses the raw material gas as being exhaust gas from a steel mill (see [0002]), and discloses separating out carbon dioxide from the other components in the gas stream (see [0017]), which is a known way to reduce the amount of impurities in the stream. Takayuki then discloses that carbon dioxide containing gas from a steel mill contains sulfur (see [0009]), and further discloses that impurities such as sulfur and sulfur and sulfur compounds may be removed from the carbon dioxide containing gas before reaction (see [0034]).
Myoi and Takayuki are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of manufacturing carbon monoxide from carbon dioxide. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the absorption methods disclosed by Myoi would remove sulfur because Myoi discloses that it is preferable that the source gas consists of 80-100% carbon dioxide which can be achieved via absorption methods to isolate carbon dioxide (see [0017]), and Takayuki teaches that sulfur is a common impurity in exhaust streams from steel mills (see [0009] and [0034]). Takayuki also discloses the motivation that sulfur compounds cause deterioration of catalysts, so removing them would improve the efficiency of the catalyst/reaction (see [0034]).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Myoi (WO-2012017916-A1) in view of Hijiaghajani (US-7892304-B2).
Regarding Claim 7, Myoi discloses the gas manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a raw material gas heating section that heats the raw material gas downstream of the protector (The conversion device 10 shown in the figure is a continuous type and has a double-tube structure. More specifically, the conversion device 10 shown in the figure comprises an outer tube 11 and an inner tube 12 disposed inside the outer tube 11. A heating device 13 is located inside the inner tube 12; see [0035]). Myoi does not explicitly teach the heating section as heating the gas before being supplied to the reactor. The structural implication of this limitation, with support from the instant drawings and specification, is that the heating section is directly upstream of the reactor. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify Myoi by providing the disclosed heating section as a component separate from and directly upstream of the reactor, rather than incorporated within the reactor, because making an integral component separable constitutes an obvious engineering modification where desirable, particularly where the modification merely relocates the heat-exchange function without changing its operation or producing a new or unexpected result (See In reDulberg, 289 F.2d 522, 523, 129 USPQ 348, 349 (CCPA 1961)).
Myoi does not explicitly teach a compression section. However, Hijiaghajani discloses a compression section that increases a pressure of a gas (the compression unit and producing a flow of compressed product; see Col. 17 Lines 42-43) that is directly upstream of a protector (flow of compressed product for delivery to purification unit 140… Purification unit 140 uses selective adsorption to remove impurities; see Col. 17 Lines 42-52). As addressed in the claim 1 rejection, the adsorptive process of Myoi is analogous to the claimed protector. The purification unit of Hijaghajani is also an adsorptive process. Because Myoi discloses a gas heating section downstream of a protector, and Hijaghajani discloses a compression section upstream of a protector, it would naturally follow that the protector would be provided between the compression section and the gas heating section when modifying Myoi to include the compression section of Hijaghajani.
Myoi and Hijaghajani are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of industrial gas processing. Incorporating the compressor of Hijaghajani would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention because Hijaghajani discloses the motivation of pressure swing adsorption processes typically requiring a high pressure feed, which is achieved by the compressor (see Col. 1 Lines 61-65).
Conclusion
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/A.L.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1774
/CLAIRE X WANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1774
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