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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/21/2023 has been considered by the Examiner.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-2 and 5-20, filed on 10/31/2023, are under consideration. Claims 3 and 21 are canceled, and claims 1, 5 and 6 are independent.
Claim Objections
Claims 7-12 and 14-20 are objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim should refer to other claims in the alternative only (as it relates to pending claims 7-8), and cannot depend from any other multiple dependent claim (as it relates to pending claims 9-12 and 14-20). See MPEP § 608.01(n). Accordingly, the claims 7- not been further treated on the merits.
Also, claim 14 is objected to because it recites “ZSM5” which should read “ZSM-5”. This catalyst designation is considered a name and should be spelled consistently as known in this art.
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 1-2 and 5-20 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.
Claim 1 is indefinite because it does not fluidly connect the vapor microchannel to the wicking microchannel. It is noted that the claim recites that the two microchannel are “adjacent” but the claim is missing recitations to connect them. Also, the claim is missing recitation connecting the oxygenate in aqueous solution to the liquid inlet.
Also, the claim is indefinite because it recites “conversion of an oxygenate in aqueous solution to more volatile intermediates for gas phase conversion”. Here, “more volatile” is unclear as to which reference point it is using (more volatile than oxygenate or aqueous/water or the solution?). Also, the recited “for gas phase conversion” is unclear because it is unknown if this conversion is the same as the vapor phase in the vapor microchannel in presence of the hydrophobic solid acid catalyst or if it is referring to a different conversion of the “intermediate”. The same issues exist in pending claims 5 and 6 which are rejected for the same reasons outlined above.
Claims 5-6 are indefinite because they do not connect the oxygenate in aqueous solution of the preamble with the liquid that comprises the oxygenates and water (line 3). They also do not connect the aqueous solution of line 11-12 to the liquid.
Additionally, claim 6 is indefinite because on line 9 the claim indicate “oxygenate is stripped” and on line 10 it indicates “at least one of the oxygenates is dehydrated”: these terms lack consistency and antecedent basis. It is not clear how many oxygenate/oxygenates are being claimed.
For purpose of examination, it is assumed that the two microchannels are fluidly connected, and that the “more volatile intermediate” is the vapor phase oxygenate from the wicking microchannel which flow into the vapor microchannel for vapor/gas phase reaction with the hydrophobic solid acid catalyst.
Claims 2 and 7-20 is also rejected under 35 USC §112 by virtue of its dependence from claim 1.
Finally, claim 9 recites "the mass average temperature" which lacks antecedent basis.
Allowable Subject Matter
As allowable subject matter has been indicated, applicant's reply must either comply with all formal requirements or specifically traverse each requirement not complied with. See 37 CFR 1.111(b) and MPEP § 707.07(a).
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
A search of pertinent prior art did not locate an apparatus or method that combines the separation/stripping of oxygenate from aqueous solution in a wicking microchannel having hydrophilic wick to provide a vapor, and flowing the vapor into adjacent vapor microchannel comprising hydrophobic solid acid catalyst that dehydrates the oxygenates to produce a vapor product.
US 2007/0078285 disclose reaction of methanol to DME in microchannel reactors in what seems to be a single phase [0007]. However, this reference does not disclose using a wicking microchannel having hydrophilic wick to provide a vapor, and flowing the vapor into adjacent vapor microchannel comprising hydrophobic solid acid catalyst that dehydrates the oxygenates.
Also, US 2002/0144600 discloses microchannel comprising a wick that can be used for separating liquids and vapors [0009], [0012] which has applications in reactive distillation with catalyst material for hydrolysis, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation and esterification [0016]. Similar disclosure is found in US 6,666,909. However, these references are silent about the claimed vapor microchannel comprising hydrophobic solid acid catalyst that dehydrates the oxygenates to produce a vapor product.
Additionally, the combined evaporation, reaction, and separation in microchannels is disclosed by US 2008/0058434, US 2010/0280136 and US 2022/0090865. More specifically, US 2022/0090865 discloses evaporating a feed at microchannel feed inlet (Fig. 1 labels 124 and 142) to provide vapor feed into the microchannel pipe where it reacts and the vapors/reactants/products condense at the outlet of the microchannel by cooling (Abstract and [0015]). None of these references suggest the claimed elements of wicking microchannel that vaporizes the oxygen to react in adjacent microchannel in the vapor phase with hydrophobic solid acid.
Furthermore US 2004/0082804 disclose microchannel for multiphase systems to facilitate phase-transfer catalyzed reactions [0009]; and US 2006/0129015 discloses microchannel having reactive distillation stages for alkylation or acylation reaction where a liquid phase comprising first reactant is contacted with catalyst wall in the microchannel, and where a vapor comprising alkylation/acylation agent is transferred from the vapor phase to the liquid phase for reaction and to form product in the liquid phase. However, as discussed above, no reference was located to suggest the claimed limitations directed to wicking microchannel having hydrophilic wick to provide a vapor, and flowing the vapor into adjacent vapor microchannel comprising hydrophobic solid acid catalyst that dehydrates the oxygenates.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALI Z FADHEL whose telephone number is (571)270-0267. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-6pm PST.
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/ALI Z FADHEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1772
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