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 .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Status of Application
Claims 1-11 are pending and presented for examination.
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.
Claims 1-4, 6 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub No. 20090050528 to Rainer et al. (hereinafter, “Rainer at __”) in view of 20160289144 to Pretz et al. (hereinafter, “Pretz at __”, cited by Applicants) and US PG Pub No. 20140371501 to Luo et al. (hereinafter, “Luo at __”, cited and provided by Applicants).
Regarding claims 1-4, 6 and 8-10, Rainer discloses a catalyst system (useful for dehydrogenation is intended use and is not given patentable weight, see MPEP 2111.01 II, Rainer at [0074]) comprising:
A composition comprising 1-100% (minus the additive as discussed infra) of the overall FCC catalyst (Rainer at [0070]) and it comprises gallium and a support (alumina, [0048]) and is substantially free of platinum (Rainer at [0026] & [0050]) and no alkali metal is present;
0.02 or more weight percent (given that most of the weight is the support (silica, [0069]) the weight percentage versus volume percentage amounts between these two will be negligibly different; this overlaps the instantly claimed range of 0.05-2 which is prima facie obvious, see MPEP 2144.05) of gallium (Rainer at [0074]) with no alkali present. However, Rainer discloses that this is “substantially free of platinum” but does not disclose what that actually entails, and the utilized catalyst is not expressly stated.
Pretz discloses a catalyst comprising 0-5 wt.% Ga, 100-300 ppm Pt, 0.05-1 wt% alkali, and alumina or aluminosilicate support. The balance would thusly be this catalyst so at most 99.8% which also overlaps that range of 98-99.95%.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instantly claimed to utilize the catalyst of Pretz in the system of Rainer. The teaching or suggested motivation in doing so being desulfurization (Pretz at “Abstract”).
Luo discloses a catalytic composition in which Pt is present at a substantially low amount of 150-300 ppm (Luo at [0014]). 150-300 ppm can overlap/lies within the 100-300 ppm instantly required as the Pt must be at least 1.1x so this aspect is also overlapped.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instantly claimed invention to utilize the Pt amount of Luo in the additive of Rainer. The teaching or suggested motivation in doing so being improved Pt retention during any regeneration (Luo at [0013]).
Claims 5, 7 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rainer, Pretz, and Luo as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of US PG Pub No. 20040242945 to Pelati et al. (hereinafter, “Pelati at __”).
Regarding claims 5 and 11, neither Rainer, Pretz, or Luo expressly state how much gallium is within the gallium-aluminosilicate structure.
Pelati in a method of making catalysts discloses adding Ga at 2 wt% (Pelati at “Example 4”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instantly claimed invention to utilize the additive of Rainer with the Ga loading of Pelati. The teaching or suggested motivation in doing so being low selectivity to tar (Pelati at [0079]).
As to claim 7, Pelati discloses alkali metal presence at 0.6 wt% K.
Citation of Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
“Aromatization of propane and butane over galloaluminosilicate catalyst modified by platinum” to Vosmenkova et al., discloses a catalyst of 10,000 ppm Pt with gallium and aluminosilicate.
US PG Pub No. 20140378731 to Iezzi et al. (cited by Applicants), discloses a catalyst composition without the additive.
Conclusion
Claims 1-11 are rejected.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD M RUMP whose telephone number is (571)270-5848. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 06:45 AM to 04:45 PM.
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RICHARD M. RUMP
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1759
/RICHARD M RUMP/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759
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