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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claim 15 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 5/28/26.
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.
Claim 3 is 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.
To Claim 3, line 3 “the heat storage system” lacks antecedent basis.
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) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over IL 21593511 and in view of Golubev (CN 112805524) and in view of Pinto (EP 0001329).
‘511 describes a method and plant for producing ammonia (title). The method combines hydrogen with nitrogen to make ammonia (page 14, lines 11-13). The process may use an ammonia synthesis catalyst (page 8, line 4). Hydrogen is formed by the electrolysis of water performed in a hydrogen production facility (page 8, lines 38-40). The nitrogen is made in a nitrogen production facility (page 10, see “Nitrogen”, line 1). The nitrogen production facility separates nitrogen using a cryogenic separation method to separate nitrogen from air (page 10, “Nitrogen”, lines 5-8). This can be considered a cryogenic air separation means.
The reference does not describe the other features of the nitrogen separation. ‘511 describes that various features of the process can be heat exchanged, to include using heat from the ammonia produced to heat other parts of the system (page 14, last full paragraph), but ‘511 does not describe that the ammonia production step is heat exchanged with a steam system.
As to the nitrogen features, Golubev describes a method and device for air separation (title) of a nitrogen-containing gas (page 5, para. 4). The method comprises a cryogenic rectification column (11) (abstract) that feeds into a low pressure column whereby nitrogen is extracted from the top and recycled (abstract). This recycled gas is compressed and cooled in a condenser evaporator and then liquified and then sent to a distillation column where it is evaporated (Claim 1). This evaporation step can be considered an expansion step. This stream that is distilled in the distillation column is then fed back to the high pressure column 11 (Claim 4). Column 11 includes the cryogenic rectification column.
Heat exchanger 4 is used to cool the recirculated stream prior to recycling (page 13, first full para), but the reference does not teach that the cooling is performed against the steam system.
Since ‘511 describes use of a nitrogen production facility for use with an ammonia synthesis plant, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to manufacture nitrogen for use with the ammonia plant by use of cryogenically air separation, use of a rectification unit, recycling at least a portion of the stream, compressing, cooling, expanding and then reintroducing the stream back into the rectification column, as taught by Golubev for use with the process of ‘511 because this method is known to be an effective means for isolating and separating nitrogen.
As to heat exchanging heat from ammonia with the steam system and heat exchanging the steam-containing stream with the recycling nitrogen stream, Pinto teaches an ammonia production method (title). The method employs a series of heat recovery means from the ammonia synthesis production to the steam generation feature (steam drum, 100) (abstract).
In their process, Pinto explains that that a heat ammonia stream is catalytically produced by reacting hydrogen with nitrogen (page 3, step c). This hot ammonia stream is then heat exchanged with water in a boiler to produce steam (page 3, step d). The steam is then used to expand engines to produce power (page 3, step f). Heat is recovered from various points in the process, to include exchanging heat from raw gas back to the turbine (page 15, line 23), gas from reformer is used to heat water in the boiler (page 13, lines 22-35), hot ammonia product produced is cooled by exchanging it with superheater 80 and water heater 82 (page 14, lines 31-34).
Exhaust gas from other process steps are used to heat exchange against the high-pressure steam that is used to cool the gas while heating the steam (page 6, lines 19-22).
Since Golubev describes use of a heat exchanger 4 to cool the recirculated stream prior to recycling, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to exchange this recycle stream with stream used in the turbine, as taught by Pinto for use in the process of ‘511 because Pinto describes recovering heat from various points in their process for use in supplying heat to the turbine.
Furthermore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to cool the ammonia synthesized gas stream by giving heat from this stream to the steam turbine, as taught by Pinto for use with the process of ‘511 because this is one effective method to recover heat used in the process.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘511, Golubev and Pinto as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Papile (US Pub.: 2020/0148547).
As to Claim 2, ‘511 teaches that electric power necessary for the ammonia synthesis facility is provided from the excess nitrogen made and then burned (page 12, para. 4). The system can also employ solar power (page 5, para. 6, 7).
Papile describes a method for producing ammonia (title). The process electrolyzes water to make hydrogen (para. 27) and combines it with a N2 source (para. 44).
The process employs renewable energy, such as solar cells (photovoltaic) as well as steam turbine energy (para. 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ steam turbine as an electricity generation means in the ammonia0generation process, as taught by Paile for use with the process of ‘511, Golubev and Pinto as a source of electricity because this is one of several known and effective methods for driving these processes in plants.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 8, 9, 13, 14, 20 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.
Claims 4, 5, 6, 7, 16, 17 and 18 depend from Claim 3, which is allowable.
Claims 10, 11 and 12 depend on Claim 9, which is allowable.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As to Claim 3, Golubev does not disclose use of a heat storage system.
As to Claim 8, Golubev teaches a pressure of 7-13 bar (page 5, para. 5), but it does not disclose a pressure as high as 25-80 bar.
As to Claim 9, Golubev teaches heating the recycle stream of 0-50 degrees C (page 6, para. 4), but does not disclose heating to a temperature of 300-1,000 degrees C.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHENG HAN DAVIS whose telephone number is (571)270-5823. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5:30.
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/SHENG H DAVIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1732 July 12, 2026
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