DETAILED ACTION
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China on 07/16/2021. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the Chinese application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiang CN207486806 [translation] in view of Genuario USPA 2009/0188782 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Xiang discloses a flue gas purification system for hazardous waste incineration (Abstract), comprising: a cooling deacidification coupling device for hazardous waste incineration flue gas (from spray gun 6-1); wherein the cooling deacidification coupling device comprises: a reaction tower (tower 6 with spray gun 6-1), a spraying device (spray gun 6-1), a first liquid inlet pipe, a second liquid inlet pipe (“double-fluid atomizing spray gun” implies 2 inlets, one for each fluid), a gas inlet pipe (figure 1: inlet into tower 6), a gas outlet pipe (figure 1: outlet from tower 6); wherein a top of the reaction tower is installed with the spraying device (figure 1: spray gun 6-1), an inlet end of the spraying device is connected to the first liquid inlet pipe and the second liquid inlet pipe (implied by “double-fluid atomizing spray gun”), the first liquid inlet pipe is configured to transmit a cooling substance (claim 3: cooling), and the second liquid inlet pipe is configured to transmit a deacidification substance (claim 3: acidic gas removing); and the spraying device is provided with a liquid outlet, and the liquid outlet of the spraying device is configured to spray out the cooling substance and the deacidification substance after the cooling substance enters the spraying device through the first liquid inlet pipe and the deacidification substance enters the spraying device through the second liquid inlet pipe (claim 3); wherein the reaction tower is connected to the gas inlet pipe and the gas outlet pipe (see figure 1: tower 6); wherein the flue gas purification system further comprises: an incineration device (claim 1), a heat recovery boiler (waste heat boiler 4) and a selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) denitrification device (SNCR 5); wherein the incineration device is connected to the reaction tower through the heat recovery boiler (see figure 1), and a gas outlet end of the heat recovery boiler is connected to a gas inlet end of the gas inlet pipe (see figure 1); the selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) denitrification device is disposed in the heat recovery boiler (figure 1: 4 and 5 are adjacent; therefore, SNCR can be considered as part of the boiler and therefore be considered as disposed in the boiler); and wherein the spraying device is configured to mix the cooling substance from the first liquid inlet pipe and the deacidification substance from the second liquid inlet pipe with a flue gas after the flue gas enters the reaction tower, thereby achieving purposes of cooling and deacidification (claim 3).
Xiang does not disclose a bottom of the reaction tower is connected to an output pipe configured to output substances generated in the reaction tower. Genuario discloses a similar invention where the reaction tower is connected to an output pipe configured to output substances generated in the reaction tower (see Genuario figure 8: output at bottom of tower). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify Xiang such that a bottom of the reaction tower is connected to an output pipe configured to output substances generated in the reaction tower, as taught by Genuario, for the purpose of allowing the liquid to be removed from the tower.
Regarding claim 2, Xiang discloses that the flue gas purification system further comprises: a bag dust-removal device (figure 1: 8) and a flue gas discharge device (figure 1: outlet); the flue gas discharge device is connected to the reaction tower (see figure 1) through the bag dust-removal device (see figure 1); and a gas inlet end of the bag dust-removal device is connected to a gas outlet end of the gas outlet pipe (see figure 1).
Regarding claim 3, Xiang does not disclose that the flue gas purification system further comprises: an alkaline solution preparation-storage device, and a liquid outlet of the alkaline solution preparation-storage device is connected to a liquid inlet of the second liquid inlet pipe. Nevertheless, the alkaline solution of Xiang necessarily comes from a source, which could be considered a storage device; therefore, the claim is anticipated by Xiang. In the alternative, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include such a storage device so that the alkaline solution can be provided when needed.
Regarding claim 4, Xiang discloses that the flue gas purification system further comprises: an activated carbon adsorption device (claim 1) connected between the gas outlet pipe and the bag dust-removal device (see figure 1); a gas inlet end of the activated carbon adsorption device is connected to the gas outlet end of the gas outlet pipe , and a gas outlet end of the activated carbon adsorption device is connected to the gas inlet end of the bag dust-removal device (see figure 1).
Regarding claim 5, Xiang discloses a dust collection device (figure 1: coil type condenser 9 removes dust) and a collection device (figure 1: 10); an inlet end of the dust collection device is connected to an outlet end of the output pipe, a gas discharge end of the dust collection device is connected to an inlet end of the second liquid inlet pipe, and an outlet end of the dust collection device is connected to a collection device (see figure 1).
Regarding claim 6, Xiang discloses a purification method using the flue gas purification system as claimed in claim 1, comprising: step 1: incinerating hazardous waste in the incineration device to generate a flue gas (Abstract); step 2: transmitting the flue gas to the heat recovery boiler for SNCR denitrification treatment and heat recovery (Abstract), thereby obtaining a first treated flue gas; step 3: transmitting the first treated flue gas from the heat recovery boiler to the gas inlet pipe of the cooling deacidification coupling device (see figure 1), simultaneously cooling the first treated flue gas and removing acidic substances from the first treated flue gas in the cooling deacidification coupling device, thereby obtaining a second treated flue gas (Abstract); and step 4: transmitting the second treated flue gas to a bag dust-removal device (Abstract) for removing dust and particulate substances from the second treated flue gas, thereby obtaining a third treated flue gas; then discharging the third treated flue gas through a flue gas discharge device (see figure 1).
Regarding claim 7, Xiang discloses before transmitting the second treated flue gas to the bag dust-removal device, using an activated carbon adsorption device to remove dioxins and heavy metals from the second treated flue gas (Abstract; see figure 1).
Conclusion
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/CHRISTOPHER P JONES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1776