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 of Species 1 in the reply filed on 5/1/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-6, 36 and 39 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Joulie “Hydrometalurgical process for the recovery of high value metals from spent lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide based lithium-ion batteries”.
Regarding claims 1 and 5, Joulie teaches a process of delithiating a lithium nickel oxide material from spent lithium batteries (Abstract). The process includes leaching with a mineral acid and treating with a hypochlorite salt after which a nickel rich stream in separated from a lithium rich stream and nickel hydroxide is recovered from an input of NaOH (Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 2, the hypochlorite may be sodium hypochlorite (Abstract).
Regarding claim 3, Joulie teaches that solvent extraction (Introduction) and NaOH (Fig. 5) may be used to extract the nickel.
Regarding claim 6, the lithium stream may have multiple valencies of lithium (Section 3).
Regarding claim 36 and 39, the lithium nickel source material may be a compound as recited in claims 36 and 39 (Section 2.1).
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) 8-10, 15, 20, 24-25, 32, and 41-42 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Julie “Hydrometalurgical process for the recovery of high value metals from spent lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide based lithium-ion batteries”. as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of WO 2019160982.
Regarding claim 8, Joulie teaches that the process may include ion exchange to purify the metal ion streams (Introductions).
Joulie does not expressly state that ion exchange is used to remove ions and form a LiCl chloride stream.
WO ‘982 teaches a process of recovering a LiCl from an ion solution by using ion exchange (Paragraphs [0011]-[0012]).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to purify the lithium containing stream to form LiCl of Joulie in view of WO ‘982. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a means to use an ion exchange process of purification as recited in Julie while provide the necessary details, which were required but not disclosed.
Regarding claim 9, the process of WO ‘982 may include a LiCl (Paragraph [0011]) with a HCl (Example 17) and a brine solution, which would include NaCl (Paragraph [0012]).
Regarding claim 10, WO ‘982 teaches that hydrogen produced may include a HCl burner to produce HCl (Example 17).
Regarding claim 15, WO ‘982 teaches that the recovered lithium may be LiOH (Paragraph [0011]).
Regarding claim 20, WO ‘982 teaches that hydrogen produced may include a HCl burner to produce HCl (Example 17) and that lithium hydroxide may be formed by the process (Paragraph [0011]). WO ‘982 does not expressly state a step of subjecting a LiCl stream to electrolysis to produce LiOH liquid, H2 gas, and Cl2 gas. However, this process step is well know in the art and would have been obvious depending on the which product of lithium was desired by the operator.
Regarding claim 25, WO ‘982 teaches that hydrogen produced may include a HCl burner to produce HCl (Example 17) and that lithium hydroxide may be formed by the process (Paragraph [0011]). WO ‘982 does not expressly state a steps c and d of claim 25. However, these process steps are well known in the art and would have been obvious depending on the whichever product was desired by the operator.
Regarding claim 32, Joule teaches the process may use HCl at a pH of 3 (Abstract).
WO ‘982 teaches that some process streams may be recycled (Paragraph [0530]) and that the process may be continuous (Paragraph [0415]).
Regarding claim 41, WO ‘982 teaches that the lithium products produced may be used to form lithium-ion batteries (Paragraph [0377]).
Regarding claims 24 and 42, the combination of the features of these claims have been addressed in the previous claims rejected herein.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES A FIORITO whose telephone number is (571)272-9921. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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/JAMES A FIORITO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1731
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