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 § 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) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN202915556 (CN ‘556). CN ‘556 discloses structure capable of carrying out the claimed method including initiating operation of a heat source (CC1) within a process heater for providing a heat load and generating heated flue gas, generating steam within a heat exchanger (4) via the heated flue gases and cooling the heated flue gases into cooled flue gases and inducing a draft within the process heater by injecting the steam through an ejector (7) fluidly coupled to the process heater after the heat exchanger (Figure 1) (SEE [0037]-[0046]).
Claim(s) 9, 12 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Garris, Jr. (5,647,221). Garris, Jr. discloses structure capable of carrying out the claimed method including initiating operation of a heat source within a process heater for providing a heat load and generating heated flue gas (SEE claim 15) generating steam within a heat exchanger (32) via the heated flue gases, thus cooling the heated flue gases into cooled flue gases and inducing a draft within the process heater by injecting the steam through an ejector (1) fluidly coupled to the process heater after the heat exchanger (32). In re claim 12, Garris, Jr. further discloses transporting a mixture of the steam and the cooled flue gases to an external location via a transport line (12). In re claim 13, Garris, Jr. further discloses cooling the mixture via a cooler (33) on the transport line for condensing the mixture into liquid form.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Whitnah (4,301,662). Whitnah discloses structure capable of carrying out the claimed method including initiating operation of a heat source (30) within a process heater for providing a heat load and generating heated flue gas, generating steam (gaseous refrigerant) within a heat exchanger (50) via the heated flue gases (SEE column 2, line 55 – column 3, line 2) and cooling the heated flue gases into cooled flue gases and inducing a draft within the process heater by injecting the steam (gaseous refrigerant) through an ejector (12) fluidly coupled to the process heater after the heat exchanger (50).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8 are allowed.
Claims 10, 11, 14 and 15 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY A WILSON whose telephone number is (571)272-4882. The examiner can normally be reached M-F; 7:00am-4:30pm.
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/GREGORY A WILSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762 March 5, 2026