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 .
Claim Status
Claims 1-17 are pending:
Claims 1-9 are rejected.
Claims 10-17 have been withdrawn.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 10-17 have been withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 04/13/2026.
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I in the reply filed on 04/13/2026 is acknowledged.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. CN 202210951557, filed on 08/09/2022.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Dependent claims are hereby rejected due to dependency from rejected claim 1
Claims 1-9 recite “high ammonia nitrogen” and “high COD”; the term “high is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “highis not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. The instant specification provides examples for wastewater described as having “high ammonia nitrogen” and “high COD”; however these examples do not define or otherwise establish an objective standard for determining the scope of the recited “high ammonia nitrogen” and “high COD”. Accordingly, it is unclear where “high” begins, and the metes and bounds of the claimed subject matter cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
Claim 1 recites “the Fenton unit (40) is configured for…so that the discharged water reaches standard”; however, the claims nor the instant specification identify which standard is being reference (e.g.: particular regulatory, industrial or performance standard). Consequently, one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of this limitation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest prior art reference of record is Sun (CN 113480084).
Regarding claim 1, Sun teaches an anaerobic ammonia oxidation treatment (standard treatment method and system for high-ammonia-nitrogen and low-carbo-nitrogen-ratio sludge drying liquid, see ABS) system for treating wastewater with high ammonia nitrogen and high COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), comprising …an anaerobic ammonia oxidation unit (20), an advanced denitrification unit (31) and …which are connected in sequence,
wherein the pre-treatment unit (15) (the pretreatment system 2 comprises a regulating tank 21, a high-efficiency sedimentation tank 22, an air floatation integrated machine 23 which are sequentially connected, the air floatation integrated machine 23 comprises an aeration stirring system)…
the anaerobic ammonia oxidation unit (20) (an anaerobic ammonia oxidation denitrification system 1) is configured for converting a part of ammonia nitrogen in the wastewater into nitrite nitrogen through short-cut nitrifying bacteria and reacting the ammonia nitrogen with the nitrite nitrogen through anaerobic ammonia oxidation bacteria to generate nitrogen to be discharged, so as to remove nitrogen source pollutants (the anaerobic ammonia oxidation denitrification system 1 is used for partially removing nitrogen from the sludge drying liquid through a short-range nitrification-anaerobic ammonia oxidation reaction to obtain partial denitrified liquid, see pg. 11);
the advanced denitrification unit (31) (A/O high-efficiency deep denitrification system 3) is configured for reducing nitrate nitrogen generated in the anaerobic ammonia oxidation unit (20) through a carbon source into nitrogen to be discharged and removing residual ammonia nitrogen, CODCr and BOD5 (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), so as to achieve an advanced denitrification (the A/O high-efficiency deep denitrification system 3 is used for further denitrifying the partial denitrified liquid through nitrification and denitrification reactions and filtering to obtain denitrified liquid, see pg. 11)…
Sun further comprises a subsequent treatment system 4 connected in sequence with pretreatment unit 2, an anaerobic ammonia oxidation denitrification system 1 and the A/ treatment/processing of the wastewater stream post treatment in the A/O high-efficiency deep denitrification system 3 (see Fig. 3).
However, Sun does not teach that: (1) the pre-treatment unit is a pre-denitrification unit configured for hydrolyzing suspended pollutants and soluble organic matters in wastewater into organic acids, oxidizing ammonia nitrogen into nitrate, and finally converting the nitrate into nitrogen to be discharged and absorbing phosphorus, so as to achieve short-cut denitrification and phosphorus removal; and (2) the subsequent treatment system is a Fenton unit (40) configured for removing refractory organic matters and metal ions and adjusting the pH value of discharged water, so that the discharged water reaches standard.
Although references teaching pre-denitrification units and Fenton units were considered during examination, the prior art does not teach nor reasonably suggest the integration of the pre-denitrification unit combination with the an anaerobic ammonia oxidation unit, advanced denitrification unit and Fenton unit connected in sequence. Additionally, the prior art does not provide a sufficient teaching or suggestion to modify the known system to arrive the claimed integrated treatment system. Therefore, the claimed invention as a whole is considered to be non-obvious.
Relevant Prior art
Liu (CN 1792897) teaches an urban sewage advanced treatment method of total nitrogen (see ABS) comprising an anoxic denitrification pool 1, aerobic nitrating pool 2 and pool 3, and an electrochemical reactor (see pg. 5).
Huo (US 2019/0084858) teaches a method for treating and recycling organic wastewater and apparatus (see ABS) comprising a device for treating high-salt, high-ammonia nitrogen and high-concentration refractory organic wastewater as shown in FIG. 2 includes: a regulation and sedimentation tank 1, a water reservoir 2, a heterogeneous Fenton apparatus 3, an anaerobic ammonia oxidation apparatus 4, a submerged MBR 5, a security filter 6, a RO system 7, a integrated softening-coagulating-precipitating system 8, a NF system 9, a multi-effect evaporator 10, an electromagnetic field 11, feeding box 12-14, centrifugal pump 15-23, mechanical agitator 24-25, and flowmeter 26-30 (see ¶48).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EKANDRA S. MILLER-CRUZ whose telephone number is (571)270-7849. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 7 am - 6 pm EST.
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/EKANDRA S. MILLER-CRUZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1773
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