DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
The amendment filed 08/12/2026 has been entered. Claims 1 and 3-23 remain pending. Claim 23 is new.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 3-22 under Jahnke et al. (US 2020/0251755) and Jakobi (DE 20 2205 011 017) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, all previous rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Ballantine et al. (US 7,833,668).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 20 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jahnke et al. (US 2020/0251755) in view of Ballantine et al. (US 7,833,668).
Regarding claims 20 and 21, Jahnke discloses an ultra-high efficiency fuel cell power generation system comprising:
a molten carbonate electrolyzer (MCE) 180 for generating hydrogen;
a fuel cell (FC) 170 connected to the MCE for converting the generated hydrogen into electricity;
a hydrogen recycle line 150;
heat exchangers 20, 60 thermally connected to the MCE and FC for transferring heat from the electrolyzer stack and the fuel cell stack to a heating load (Fig. 1).
Jahnke does not teach a plurality of hydrogen recirculation stacks wherein the plurality of hydrogen recirculation stacks are arranged in a cascade such that a first hydrogen recirculation stack is operably connected to a second hydrogen recirculation stack, wherein the first hydrogen recirculation stack purifies an input stream comprising hydrogen and one or more impurities to produce a pure hydrogen stream and an impure hydrogen stream, wherein the first hydrogen recirculation stack delivers a portion of the impure hydrogen stream to the second hydrogen recirculation stack for purification.
Ballentine, directed to a fuel cell system with greater than 95% fuel utilization, teaches the system contains a cascaded electrochemical hydrogen pump separation unit 1. The unit includes several sets of cells (i.e., plurality of hydrogen recirculation stacks); several sets of cells are arranged in process fluid flow series so that the exhaust from one set of cells is used as an input for the next set of cells (col. 1, line 53 – col. 2, line 20).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to have a plurality of hydrogen recirculation stacks in order to have a high degree of fuel utilization (title).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3-19, 22, and 23 are allowable.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: novel over the closest prior art cited above. Instant claim 1 recites, inter alia, a plurality of hydrogen recirculation stacks, each hydrogen recirculation stack including an electrochemical hydrogen pump. Ballentine, as presented above, teaches a plurality of hydrogen recirculation stacks but not a plurality of pumps. In Ballentine, the system uses a cascaded electrochemical hydrogen pump (i.e., a plurality of hydrogen recirculation stacks but with a single pump). There is no motivation to have a plurality of pumps when the system of Ballentine achieves up to about 100% separated hydrogen with a single pump.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/CARLOS BARCENA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1723
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