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.
Specification
The specification and drawings have been reviewed and no clear informalities or objections have been noted.
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) 1-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chishima (US 2021/0292664) in view of Sakai (US 2011/0065815) and Groenewald (US 2022/0387952) and Desai (EP 3411265 B1).
Regarding claims 1 and 2, Chishima discloses a fuel manufacturing system for manufacturing a liquid fuel from a biomass raw material, the fuel manufacturing system comprising:
a biomass raw material supplier (biomass feedstock supply unit 2) that supplies the biomass raw material;
a gasification furnace (30) that gasifies the biomass raw material to generate a synthesis gas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide (as described in paragraph 40);
a liquid fuel manufacturer (liquid fuel production unit 4) that manufactures the liquid fuel from the synthesis gas generated by the gasification furnace (as described in paragraph 40);
an electrolizer (60) that uses electric power generated using renewable energy to generate hydrogen from water (paragraph 48);
a hydrogen supplier (hydrogen supply pump 64) that supplies the hydrogen generated by the electrolizer (see Fig. 1 which illustrates the hydrogen output from electrolizer being sent to hydrogen pump 64);
a heater (34) that heats the gasification furnace; and
a controller (7),
the biomass raw material supplier having a first raw material supply path through which the biomass raw material is supplied to the gasification furnace (the first raw material supply path is the path that the biomass takes from the biomass supply unit 2 to the gasification furnace 30 and is labeled 20),
the hydrogen supplier having a first hydrogen supply path through which the hydrogen is supplied to the gasification furnace or the first raw material supply path (see Fig. 1 which illustrates a first hydrogen supply path from the hydrogen pump 64 to the gasification furnace 30),
the controller being able to calculate an amount of heat necessary for gasifying the biomass raw material in the gasification furnace (see paragraph 80 which discloses how the controller 7 calculates the amount of heat needed for the gasifier and supplies the calculated amount of heat needed).
Chishima teaches controlling heater operation in order to accommodate the needs of the gasification furnace and teaches flow rate control of the both the hydrogen supply and the biomass supply, but does not teach how the heater produces heat. More specifically, Chishima does not teach second raw material and hydrogen supply paths that lead to the heater.
Sakai also discloses producing hydrocarbon from biomass (see abstract).
Sakai, like Chishima, teaches the need for a heater to provide heat to an endothermic reaction (gasification). Sakai teaches a heater (combustion gas generator 150) that is configured to provide heat to the gasifier (110). Sakai goes on to teach that the fuel that is utilized for combustion in this heater is biomass (FB, see paragraph 154). Sakai teaches that some biomass (MB) is sent to the gasifier to be gasified while another portion (or second pathway) is formed to send biomass to the heater to provide heat to the gasifier.
As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to add the second pathway of Sakai, such that biomass is fed to the heater of Chishima such that the heater has a source of fuel so it can produce heat for the gasification furnace.
Groenewald also discloses a hydrogen production system (see abstract).
Groenewald, like Chishima, teaches a heater (116) for a reactor (112). Groenewald teaches that this fuel for the heater is hydrogen (via conduit 312, see paragraph 79). Groenewald teaches sending hydrogen to the burner in order to produce heat for a reactor.
As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to add the hydrogen pathway (second hydrogen supply path) of Groenewald to the system of modified Chishima such that hydrogen is fed to the heater in order to supply another source of combustion heat.
Such a modification to Chishima leads to a system in which flow rate control of the fuels (hydrogen and biomass) to the heater are controlled in such a way to meet the energy needs of the gasifier.
Chishima, as modified above, teaches a system which utilizes two fuels (hydrogen and biomass) to fire a heater but is silent regarding a controller that controls both of these flows of fuels (hydrogen and biomass) based on calculations of efficiency of each fuel.
Desai also discloses a dual fuel burner where one of the fuels is hydrogen that is produced by an electrolyzer (see paragraph 4).
Desai teaches a heater that is configured to burn two fuels (hydrogen and LPG) and teaches an automation system/controller that controls the flows of each of these fuels based on a determination to produce the maximum efficiency (see paragraph 22 which discloses the automation system and controlling flows of each fuel based on efficiency).
As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to add the dual fuel control system of Desai to the system of modified Chishima such that each fuel flow rate is determined by a determined efficiency of each fuel in order to maximize efficiency.
Regarding claim 3, Chishima, as modified above, teaches a system that is configured to maximize energy efficiency by controlling the flow rate of hydrogen and biomass to the heater. Chishima, however, does not teach that the controller is configured to take into account the energy required for hydrogen generation of the hydrogen destined for the gasifier (this is the “hydrogen necessary for heating the gasification furnace”) and the hydrogen destined for the heater (this is the “hydrogen necessary for water vapor in the heater) when calculating efficiency.
It is known in the art that hydrogen generation, particularly from an electrolizer, requires a certain energy input (as discussed in Chishima) in order to produce the desired amount of hydrogen. Modified Chishima teaches the determination of an amount of hydrogen to send to the gasifier and the heater based on the determined efficiency of each fuel (hydrogen or biomass). As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to calculate the hydrogen efficiency in modified Chishima based on the total amount of energy required to produce the hydrogen as this optimizes efficiency.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chishima (US 2021/0292664) in view of Sakai (US 2011/0065815) and Groenewald (US 2022/0387952) and Desai (EP 3411265 B1) as applied to claim 1 and further in view of Boissonnet (WO 2017077090 A1 with references made to the machine translation).
Claim 4 recites the calculation of a number of heat amounts that are exhibited in the claimed system. Modified Chishima does not teach calculating or measuring these heat amounts although these heat amounts are present in the system of modified Chishima.
Boissonnet also discloses a gasification system (see abstract).
Boissonnet teaches a gasification system which includes an electrolizer (lines 505-511) and teaches that the gasification system is monitored in part by calculating an energy balance of the system utilizing a controller/software (lines 667-672). Boissonnet teaches such a calculation in order to evaluate the total energy inputs and outputs of the system and compare it to other processes to evaluate which process is the most efficient (lines 621-626).
As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to add the controller/software of Boissonnet to the controller of modified Chishima in order to calculate the energy balance of modified Chishima which will take into account all energy inputs and outputs of the system, including the claimed energy inputs/outputs.
Relevant Prior Art
CN 112944663 A - Discloses a dual fuel system which feed a heater, similar to that of the instant disclosure and teaches that the amount of hydrogen and natural gas are varied to maximize efficiency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW J MERKLING whose telephone number is (571)272-9813. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 8am-6pm.
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/MATTHEW J MERKLING/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1725
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