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 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 4-5 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.
Claim 4 recites the limitation "the fuel cell is" in line 7. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, as there is no previous recitation of a fuel cell. While there is a recitation of a “fuel cell unit”, only a reformer and a burner have been established as part of the fuel cell unit (see claim 1 line 3).
Claim 5 recites the limitation "the fuel cell is" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, as there is no previous recitation of a fuel cell. While there is a recitation of a “fuel cell unit”, only a reformer and a burner have been established as part of the fuel cell unit (see claim 1 line 3).
Claim 5 is rejected for being dependent thereon.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 8-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Venkataraman et al. (US 2005/0164051).
Regarding claim 1, Venkataraman discloses a fuel cell system comprising hot box 108 containing a fuel cell stack 3, a reformer 9, and a burner/combustor 15 (Fig 7). The fuel cell anode has a supply of hydrogen and unreformed hydrocarbon fuel ([0015]) and water ([0096], see Fig 7, and water supplied to reformer 9 via mixer 241 and water pump 47); therefore the anode exhaust from conduit 31 has the hydrogen, unreformed hydrocarbon fuel, and water components [effluent stream].
Anode exhaust is provided to condenser 37 [liquid-gas separation unit] that separates the exhaust into a liquid stream [water, via condensate pump 243] and a gas stream [via conduit 247] ([0113], see Fig 7).
The gas stream is provided to a hydrogen separator/purification device 29 [hydrogen separation unit] that separates the gas stream into a hydrogen stream [conduit 83] and an off-gas stream ([0113], see exhaust to burner). A portion of the off-gas exhaust from the hydrogen separator/purification device 29 is transferred to the combustor/burner (see Figs 1 and 7 [where stream 81 or a stream recycles to the burner 15]) [at least a portion of the off-gas stream is transferred to the burner].
Regarding claims 2 and 9, Venkataraman discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. The combustor/burner 15 has a conduit 73 [auxiliary fuel inlet] through which a hydrocarbon fuel such as natural gas is injected ([0104], Fig 7).
Regarding claim 8, Venkataraman discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. The hydrogen separator/purification device 29 is a pressure swing adsorption PSA device ([0069], [0122]).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 3 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Venkataraman et al. (US 2005/0164051), as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Taguchi et al. (US 2011/0212375).
Regarding claim 3, Venkataraman discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. While Venkataraman discloses a condenser 37 [liquid-gas separation unit] ([0113], see Fig 7), Venkataraman does not explicitly disclose wherein the liquid-gas separation unit comprises an external stream inlet through which a hydrogen-containing stream is externally introduced into the system.
Taguchi discloses a fuel cell system 100 comprising a fuel cell 101, a hydrogen generator 102, an oxidizing gas supplier 103, a condensed water tank 105 for first condenser 114 [liquid-gas separator] ([0215], Fig 12). The first condenser 114 is provided at the off-gas fuel path 43 of the fuel cell and is also connected to the fuel gas bypass path 44 ([0223], Fig 12). That is, the first condenser 114 receives two inputs of a hydrogen-containing stream.
As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use multiple input streams of hydrogen-containing gas [such as a fuel-gas bypass external to the system] to a condenser [liquid-gas separator] as taught by Taguchi with the condenser [liquid-gas separator] of Venkataraman for the purpose of separating water from multiple streams using a single unit and into a single tank and gas exhaust.
Regarding claim 6, modified Venkataraman discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Venkataraman further teaches that the system has one or more sensors in the system 201 to determine if the reformer requires additional heat and/or how much additional heat is required ([0087]). The sensors include reformer temperature sensors which measure the reformer temperature and/or parameter sensors ([0087]). The output of the sensors is provided to a computer [control unit], and a processor or operator then controls the combustor heat output based on the step of determining to provide a desired amount of heat from the combustor to the reformer ([0087]). The combustor heat output may be controlled by controlling the amount of fuel and air being provided into the combustor or by shutting off the fuel and/or air being provided into the combustor ([0087]). Therefore, Venkataraman teaches controlling the amount of fuel [including gas from the off-gas stream and/or an auxiliary fuel cell stream] to the burner.
While Venkataraman does not explicitly disclose a sensing unit detecting a temperature of the burner, because Venkataraman teaches using multiple temperature sensors in the system ([0087]), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add a temperature sensor to measure the temperature of the burner/combustor in order to determine how much fuel to add or restrict to obtain the desired temperature.
Claim(s) 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Venkataraman et al. (US 2005/0164051) in view of Taguchi et al. (US 2011/0212375), as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Osada et al. (JP 2005/276544, see machine translation).
Regarding claim 4, modified Venkataraman discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Taguchi further teaches a water level detector 135 in the condensed water tank 105A with a determination of abnormalities ([0331]-[0332]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the water level detector in the condensed water tank of Taguchi with the water tank 39 of Venkataraman for the purpose of determining how much water is collector, and/or determining abnormalities.
However, while Taguchi teaches determination of abnormalities, modified Venkataraman does not explicitly disclose a control unit performing control such that the water level detected by the sensing unit is maintained at a reference level, wherein based on the water level detected by the sensing unit, the control unit performs a first operation of controlling an amount of water supplied as the feed, a second operation of checking whether the reformer is operating normally, a third operation of checking whether the fuel cell is operating normally, or at least two of the first through third operations.
Osada discloses a fuel cell system comprising a fuel cell 10 ([0015]), a reformer 20 having a reforming unit 22 ([0019]-[0021]), a burner 21 ([0020]), a gas condenser 34 [water liquid separator] ([0020]) that communicates with a deionizer 40 and water reservoir 50 ([0020], [0026], Fig 1). The water reservoir includes a pressure gauge 51 for determining the water pressure [water level] ([0027], Fig 1). A reforming water pump 53 pumps water from the reservoir tank 50 to the reforming unit 22 ([0028], Fig 1). A control device 70 controls the reforming water pump 53 based on the rate of change of the water pressure [water level] measured by the pressure gauge 51 that measure the water pressure in the water reservoir 50 ([0031]). That is, based on the amount of water in the water reservoir, the reforming water pump 53 is controlled, where the output is the water to the reforming unit 22 (Fig 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine using the water level to control the amount of water supplied to the reformer [supplied as the feed] as taught by Osada with the water level of the water tank of Venkataraman modified by Taguchi for the purpose of controlling the amount of water that is supplied to the reformer.
Further, because Osada teaches using the water level to control other of the system, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the water level determination to determine abnormalities in other parts of the system [checking whether the reformer/fuel cell is operating normally] as taught by Venkataraman modified by Taguchi.
Regarding claim 5, modified Venkataraman discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Taguchi obtains detected values from detectors in step S200, where the detectors 140-145 are sensors related to states of the fuel cell system and hydrogen generator, including temperature detectors, ignition detectors, air flow meters, rotation number detectors, material gas flow meters {which includes outputs from units such as the hydrogen generator [yields/flow rates] and condenser [water level]} ([0069]) [monitoring operation statuses of the reformer and fuel cell unit]. It is determined from the detected values whether the values are abnormal in step S201 [checking the reformer and fuel cell for performance degradation and abnormalities] (Fig 5).
Taguchi classifies abnormalities into first abnormalities [those not requiring maintenance] and second abnormalities [those requiring maintenance] ([0353], [0377], Figs 4 and 20), and either shifts the fuel cell to stand-by mode S204 or shifts to a start-up inhibiting mode S205 (Fig 5). A maintenance operation occurs to perform an abnormality restoration process or repair of the fuel cell system 100 ([0326]). Therefore, Taguchi further teaches establishing a plan for performance maintenance and system maintenance of the entire system by controlling parts where it is determined that any abnormality has occurred as a result of the checking.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the monitoring operation statuses, checking for abnormalities, and performing maintenance as taught by Taguchi in the fuel cell system of Venkataraman for the purpose of finding and correcting abnormalities for operation of the fuel cell system.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Venkataraman et al. (US 2005/0164051), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Suzuki et al. (US 2002/0039674).
Regarding claim 7, Venkataraman discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. While Venkataraman discloses the anode exhaust provided to a condenser 37 [liquid-gas separation unit] that separates the exhaust into a liquid stream [water, via condensate pump 243] and a gas stream [via conduit 247] ([0113], see Fig 7), Venkataraman does not explicitly disclose that the liquid gas separation unit comprises a demister.
Suzuki discloses a fuel cell system including a fuel cell stack 1 connected with vapor-liquid separators 30A-D, wherein liquid separators 30C-D are connected to the anode exhaust (Fig 13). Vapor-liquid separators are for cooling condensation from the off-gas, and can comprise a demister ([0100]). The vapor-liquid separators 30C-D are the same as the vapor liquid separators 30A-B ([0111]), and therefore the vapor-liquid separators 30C-D connected to the anode exhaust can be demisters.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a demister as the vapor-liquid separator/condenser as taught by Suzuki with the condenser 37 of Venkataraman for the purpose of condensing and separating a liquid from the anode off-gas.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JACOB BUCHANAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1186. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00 PM (ET).
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/JACOB BUCHANAN/ Examiner, Art Unit 1725
/NICOLE M. BUIE-HATCHER/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1725
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