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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending in the application. Claims 1-20 are rejected.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Examiner has considered the Information Disclosure Statement(s) filed on April 2nd, 2024 and May 30th, 2023.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
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 1-11 and 20 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.
Claims 1-11 and 20 are rejected as indefinite based on the limitation of “a particle size in” a particular range in claim 1. The instant claims do not specify whether the “particle size” is a mean particle size, average particle size, or some other measurement. If there are several different ways of calculating a parameter, and the specification fails to indicate which method is to be employed, then the claims are indefinite, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. v. Station Casinos Inc., 71 USPQ2d 1439. The specification in paragraph [00012] describes an “average particle size;” however, limitations from the specification are not imported into the claims. Furthermore, the recitation of “average particle size” in claim 12 relative to only “particle size” in claim 1 suggests Applicant intends for the terms to have a different scope.
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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. Renewable Energy 2019, 144, 139-146 in view of Mueller Steam Specialty, Screen and Basket Facts, 2019 and in further view of WO 2013/013318 A1 by Dottori et al. and in further view of CN 114315769 A by Fan et al. (where a machine translation is appended to the reference and will be referred to herein) and in further view of U.S. Patent PGPub No. 2011/0144359 A1 by Heide et al. and in further view of Ämmälä et al. Industrial Crops & Products 2018, 122, 384-391 and in further view of Gil et al. Fuel 2014, 116, 328-340.
Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. (See MPEP § 2141.01)
Wang et al. teach the following general method of converting corncob (a biomass feed) to furfural (abstract):
The present work investigated corncob conversion in a diluted sulfuric acid-toluene biphasic system with extremely low water/solid ratios (<1). It was found that a high furfural yield (65.67 mol%) was achieved in a very short time (10 min) under a high solid loading of 200% (in the aqueous phase) under the conditions of 1.5 MPa N2, 0.5:1 water/solid ratio (v/w), 10:1 toluene/solid ratio (v/m), and 3.85 wt% H2SO4 (in the aqueous phase). After the reaction, no aqueous phase existed, and furfural was completely accumulated in the toluene phase. Further research showed that the majority of the furfural content (84.73%, GC-MS detection) was in the toluene phase, which is beneficial for its recovery.
Regarding the starting material, Wang et al. teach the following on page 140 (Section 2.1):
Corn cob was collected from Shandong Province in China. After the corn cob was machine-milled and screened to a size between 40- and 60-mesh and dried overnight in an oven at 45 °C, the particles were stored at room temperature in a desiccator. […]
Mueller reports that 40-mesh has openings of 0.4 mm and that 60-mesh has openings of 0.25 mm corresponding to particle sizes within the range of claim 1. Wang et al. further teach on page 140 (Section 2.2):
All reactions were conducted in a 100-mL Hastelloy autoclave reactor (Anhui Kemi Machinery Technology Co., Ltd., Anhui, China; Haster) equipped with a double helical ribbon and screw impeller. […]
Accordingly, the prior art teaches reacting a biomass feed in a reactor in the presence of a solvent and an acid catalyst (sulfuric acid, a mineral acid embraced by instant claims 8 and 16) to form a product mixture comprising furfural wherein the solvent comprises water and a water immiscible solvent (toluene, recited in claims 9 and 17). Regarding “separating the furfural … from the reaction product mixture” of instant claims 1 and 12, Wang et al. teach on page 144:
[…] Further, distillation can be used to recover the furfural from the toluene phase [12,26]. […]
Ascertainment of the differences between the prior art and the claims. (See MPEP § 2141.02)
Wang et al. do not characterize the starting biomass, i.e. whether the prior art has a moisture content of 25 wt% or less. Wang et al. further do not teach the instantly claimed steps of grinding or blanketing as recited in claims 1 and 12. Additional limitations of dependent claims are addressed below.
Finding of prima facie obviousness --- rationale and motivation (See MPEP § 2141.02)
Regarding the limitation of instant claims 1 and 12 of “providing a biomass feed having a moisture content of 25 wt% or less;” or “providing a biomass feed having a moisture content of 5 to 15 wt%;” Wang et al. do not teach the initial moisture content of the corn cob; however, Dottori et al. teaches the following on page 6:
PNG
media_image1.png
95
754
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Accordingly, a person having ordinary skill in the art would expect that corn cobs obtained from various sources would overlap with the instantly claimed moisture content percentages of instant claims 1, 3 and 12. At least drying in the field would correspond to the limitations of claims 4, 5 and 13. Furthermore, since Wang et al. teach a low water to solids ratio, a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to use sources having lower moisture contents.
Regarding the steps of “grinding” and “blanketing” in claims 1 and 12, Fan et al. teach (paragraph [n0001]) “a method and apparatus for pretreatment of corn cob raw materials for furfural production.” Fan et al. note that the presence of oxygen is detrimental in the production of furfural as follows (paragraph [n0006]):
Corn cobs have many pores and are rich in oxygen. During the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of furfural, oxygen participates in the reaction and produces a large number of byproducts, mainly organic acids such as acetic acid. These byproducts not only reduce the yield of furfural, but are also major components of "three wastes" (waste gas, wastewater, and solid waste), which have adverse effects on the environment.
Fan et al. teach the following steps in paragraphs [n0010]-[n0012]:
[n0010]
The crushing step involves crushing the corn cobs and taking the corn cob fragments that have passed through a 40-mesh sieve.
[n0011]
The drying step involves placing the corn cob fragments in a drying room at 115-120 degrees Celsius and drying them for 3-5 hours.
[n0012]
The deoxygenation step involves baking the dried corn cob fragments in an oxygen-free environment for 30-60 minutes, followed by cooling in an oxygen-free environment.
As noted above 40-mesh sieves have openings of 0.4 mm corresponding to particle sizes embraced by the range 0.02 mm to 10 mm. Fan et al. further teach in paragraph [n0014] that the deoxygenation step is preferably carried out in “a nitrogen-filled environment for baking,” corresponding to the step of blanketing with an inert gas. Fan et al. do not specifically address “resulting in an oxidant or oxygen content of 5 mol% or less.” This limitation has been interpreted within the scope of the instant claims to define the mol% of O2 rather than, for instance, all oxygen atoms within the biomass. At least since Fan et al. teach the undesirability of oxygen and generating an “oxygen-free environment,” a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to minimize the presence of free oxygen. MPEP 2144.05(II)(A) states: ‘"[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955)’. The same rationale applies to claims 7 and 15.
Fan et al. teach the step of “crushing” the biomass to obtain particles. Since the instant claims are open-ended and do not exclude a variety of physical transformations, the step of “crushing” corresponds to the instant step “grinding” since it would involve pressing and causing the material to move between surfaces. Even if this were not the case, a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been familiar with methods that can be used to reduce particle sizes. Heide et al. teach the following on page 2:
PNG
media_image2.png
181
553
media_image2.png
Greyscale
At least in the interest of determining which known methods of reducing particle size would result in optimum removal of oxygen during the steps of Fan et al., a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to test known methods including crushing and grinding. Regarding the limitation of “5 wt% or less having the particle size of 75 microns or less,” Ämmälä et al. teach on page 384: “A fine size with a partially deconstructed cell wall and high specific surface are advantageous, e.g., in the conversion of biomass into fuels and chemicals […]. Extensive grinding, however, causes high electric energy consumption because grinding energy increases rapidly with reducing particle size.” Accordingly, a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to only reduce particle size using minimum grinding and avoid generating significantly smaller particles than necessary. Furthermore, a person having ordinary skill in seeking to compare the modified procedure directly to the results of Wang et al. would have been motivated to use an analogous method where the particles are “screened to a size between 40- and 60-mesh” that would remove particles than 0.4 mm. The same rationale applies to instant claims 6 and 14.
Regarding the limitation of “average aspect ratio,” the instant specification does not define how aspect ratio should be calculated in order to obtain values less than 1. Ämmälä et al. teach a method of calculating average aspect ratios on page 385:
The aspect ratios were calculated from optical images obtained with a CCD camera from the tube flow of the diluted powder samples. Images were recorded in a cuvette having a rectangular cross section. The average aspect ratio of a sample was calculated by dividing the average length of the particles by the average width of the particles. […]
Similarly, Gil et al. teach on page 331:
Aspect Ratio (AR): is defined as the ratio between length and width of the particle. AR equals one for circles and squares, and it is greater than one otherwise, the more elongated the greater.
Accordingly, a person having ordinary skill in the art would expect to obtain an average aspect ratio embraced by the instant claims when determined by known methods.
Regarding instant claim 2, Fan et al. teach the use of deoxygenated baking equipment in paragraph [n0022] where the limitation of “collection” with respect to “vessel” is not considered to impart any structural features to any otherwise generic “vessel”. Furthermore, Fan et al. teach in paragraph [n0048] that a mixture output can be further used for the preparation of furfural corresponding to transferring the material into a reactor of Wang et al.
Regarding instant claims 10 and 18, Fan et al. teach in paragraph [n0003] that hydrolysis and dehydration occur in both one and two-step furfural production methods using biomass.
Regarding instant claims 11 and 19, Wang et al. only explicitly refer to a singular reactor; however, the authors teach on page 139 that furfural has a variety of commercial applications. In the interest of developing a commercially viable production system, a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to employ multiple reactors to, for instance, allow for multiple batch processes to increase overall production.
Regarding instant claim 20, this claim only defines the derivatives rather than the requiring the production thereof.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW P COUGHLIN whose telephone number is (571)270-1311. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 10 am - 6 pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee Claytor can be reached at 571-272-8394. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MATTHEW P COUGHLIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1626