DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-19 are pending in the instant application.
Priority
This application is a U.S. national stage entry under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application No. PCT/IB2022/055057 filed May 30, 2022, which claims priority benefit to Italy patent Application No. 102021000014195 filed on May 30, 2022.
Information Disclosure Statements
Applicants’ Information Disclosure Statement, filed on 11/29/2023, has been considered. Please refer to Applicant’s copy of the PTO-1449 submitted herewith.
Response to Restriction Requirement
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (i.e. claims 1-11 and 18) in the reply filed by Applicant’s representative Aslan Ettehadieh on 06/22/2026 is acknowledged.
Status of the Claims
Claims 12-17 and 19 are withdrawn from further consideration by Applicant as being drawn to non-elected inventions under 37 CFR 1.142(b) due to the restriction requirement. Claims 1-11 and 18 are under examination on the merits.
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 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.
Claims 1-2, 5 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN110918055 A (“the `055 publication”) to Bian et al., published on March 27, 2020.
Applicant’s claim 1 is drawn to a method for manufacture of a composite material for recovery of nutrients and/or pollutants from wastewater, the method comprising, in succession, the following phases: supply of at least one carbonate material; supply of at least one carbonaceous material; mixing of said carbonate material with said carbonaceous material to obtain a mixture; and heating of said mixture to a temperature above 600°C to obtain a composite material.
The `055 publication (claim 3) discloses a method for preparing the composite material for efficiently removing phosphorus from waste water comprising the following steps: Step 1: Air dry shellfish waste (carbonate material) and crop straw (carbonaceous material) naturally or dry at low temperature for later use; Step 2: Mix shellfish waste and crop straw in a mass ratio of 1:1 to 3, and crush them until the particle size is less than 5 cm; Step 3: Perform thermal decomposition on the mixture from Step 2 at a temperature above 900 ℃. After reaching the maximum temperature, maintain it for 1-2 hours and then cool it down before removing it. Nitrogen gas is introduced during the thermal decomposition process to isolate oxygen. The `055 publication [0011 and 0020] discloses the shellfish waste mentioned refers to scallop shells, oyster shells, shrimp shells, or crab shells, etc., and the shellfish waste is mainly composed of inorganic matter and a small amount of organic matter. The main component of inorganic matter is calcium carbonate. After thermal decomposition, a large number of calcium ions are present on its surface, which gives these substances the ability to adsorb phosphorus. The `055 publication [0012] discloses the agricultural straw refers to corn, wheat, or rice straw, etc. The `055 publication [0019] discloses the mixture of shell waste and crop straw is pyrolyzed at high temperature to obtain pyrolyzed carbon, which has a better phosphorus adsorption effect than the material obtained by simply mixing shell waste carbon and crop straw carbon. Therefore, the `055 publication anticipates claims 1-2, 5, and 18.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 3-4, and 6-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the `055 publication in view of CN111054311 A (“the `311 publication”) to Yue et al. and CN110302750 A (“the `750 publication”) to Huang et al.
The `055 publication (claim 3) discloses a method for preparing the composite material for efficiently removing phosphorus from waste water comprising the following steps: Step 1: Air dry shellfish waste (carbonate material) and crop straw (carbonaceous material) naturally or dry at low temperature for later use; Step 2: Mix shellfish waste and crop straw in a mass ratio of 1:1 to 3, and crush them until the particle size is less than 5 cm; Step 3: Perform thermal decomposition on the mixture from Step 2 at a temperature above 900 ℃. After reaching the maximum temperature, maintain it for 1-2 hours and then cool it down before removing it. Nitrogen gas is introduced during the thermal decomposition process to isolate oxygen. The `055 publication [0011 and 0020] discloses the shellfish waste mentioned refers to scallop shells, oyster shells, shrimp shells, or crab shells, etc., and the shellfish waste is mainly composed of inorganic matter and a small amount of organic matter. The main component of inorganic matter is calcium carbonate. After thermal decomposition, a large number of calcium ions are present on its surface, which gives these substances the ability to adsorb phosphorus. The `055 publication [0012] discloses the agricultural straw refers to corn, wheat, or rice straw, etc. The `055 publication [0019] discloses the mixture of shell waste and crop straw is pyrolyzed at high temperature to obtain pyrolyzed carbon, which has a better phosphorus adsorption effect than the material obtained by simply mixing shell waste carbon and crop straw carbon.
In terms of claim 3, the difference is that the `055 publication does not teach said one or more mineral materials comprise dolomite. Instead, the `055 publication teaches the `055 publication [0020] discloses the shellfish waste is mainly composed of inorganic matter and, and the main component of inorganic matter is calcium carbonate.
However, the difference is further taught and/or suggested by the `311 publication. The `311 publication [0002] teaches discloses a process for preparing biochar from dolomite and malic acid modified walnut husk filter media and its application in wastewater treatment. One ordinary skilled in the art would have been motivated to prepare a composite material for treating wastewater by using dolomite instead of calcium carbonate as an inorganic matter.
In terms of claim 4, the `055 publication (claims 4-7) discloses that carbonaceous material is obtained by pyrolysis of biomass, in which light the person skilled in the art easily envisages that carbonaceous material is obtained by pyrolysis of one or more biomass of walnut shell.
In terms of claim 6, the step of heating stage comprising moving the mixture is routinely selectable by a person skilled in the art.
In terms of claim 7, the `055 publication discloses that the mixture comprises a carbonate material and a carbonaceous material, and the carbonate material and the carbonaceous material may be present in a mass ratio of 1:1 mixing, based on which, the person skilled in the art can further routinely adjust or optimize the proportionality of the carbonate material and the carbonaceous material according to the processing practices and such that the carbonate material is present in a concentration of more than 60% by weight as assessed with respect to the total weight of the mixture and the carbonaceous material is present in a concentration of less than 40% by weight as assessed with respect to the total weight of the mixture. Accordingly, to the extent that the claims to which they are cited are not novel or inventive, claim 7 is not inventive.
In terms of claims 8-9, Example 2 of the `055 publication [0041] discloses the mixed carbonaceous material was further crushed to a particle size of less than 5 mm, and the `311 publication [0025-0026] discloses that both dolomite flour and biochar material have a particle size of 2-3 mm, in light of which a person skilled in the art would conceive that both the carbonate material and the carbonaceous material are in powder form and that the average particle size of the carbonate material and the carbonaceous material can be routinely adjusted or optimized. Accordingly, to the extent that the claims to which they are cited are not novel or inventive, claims 8-9 are not inventive.
In terms of claims 10-11, the `750 publication discloses (see Summary of the Specification) that the object of the present invention is to overcome the various drawbacks of existing sludge disposal technologies, the inability to achieve the drawbacks and shortcomings of the full utilization of sludge, and to provide a process for the production of highly efficient phosphorus removal biochar. The production method provided by the present invention takes full advantage of the high quality of biomass content in surplus sludge, converts it into a highly efficient adsorbent for the treatment of phosphorus-containing waste water, enables resource utilization of waste, solves the problem of incomplete disposal of surplus sludge in conventional methods, and at the same time results in an environmentally friendly product with economic value; the resulting phosphorus removal biochar has a strong capacity to adsorb phosphate, with removal rates above 95% and adsorption capacities above 91 mg/g. A method for producing high efficiency phosphorus removal biochar comprising the steps of S1: mixing the mixture of dolomite flour and coal flour and then adding to the remaining sludge, shaking, filtering, drying the solids; the mass ratio of dolomite flour to coal flour is from 1: 1 to 1.5 and the mass ratio of the mixture to the dry basis of the remaining sludge is from 1: 10 to 15; S2: Pyrolysis of the solid at 600-1000 ° C, washing; S3: adding the washed solids to the rare earth metal salt solution, shaking, filtering, and oven drying to obtain the high efficiency phosphorus removal biochar. Dolomite is a complex salt of magnesium carbonate and calcium carbonate, the main constituent of which is CaMg(CO3)2, and the following decomposition reactions mainly occur under high temperature conditions:
PNG
media_image1.png
30
345
media_image1.png
Greyscale
and
PNG
media_image2.png
33
215
media_image2.png
Greyscale
during pyrolysis, Ca, Mg will bond to the biochar in the form of M-O or M-OH, providing binding sites for phosphate. The highly efficient phosphorus removal biochar produced mainly undergoes a reaction during phosphorus removal as follows: in an acidic environment, magnesium oxide and calcium oxide bonded to the biochar are protonated forming C-MgOH+ and C-CaOH+, the electrogenicity of the biochar surface is altered, MgOH+ and CaOH+ act as adsorption sites, and phosphate ions are adsorbed to the biochar surface by electrostatic attraction between the charges. In addition, the protonation process of magnesium oxide and calcium oxide consumes H + in the solution, with increasing pH of the solution, protonation is impaired and the prevailing state of phosphate is gradually changed, at which point magnesium oxide and calcium oxide of the biochar surface crystallizes with phosphate ions in the solution to form crystals such as MgHPO4, Mg (H2PO4)2, Ca5(PO4)3(OH), and the like, which adsorb phosphate ions to the surface of the biochar, thereby reducing the phosphorus concentration in the solution. As can be seen, the `750 publication discloses that the heating stage produces carbon dioxide, in light of which a person skilled in the art would readily expect heating to produce carbon dioxide; and in order to increase resource utilization efficiency and reduce releasing CO2, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the process further comprises at least one stage of recovery of carbon dioxide produced by the heating stage; the `750 publication further discloses that magnesium oxide and calcium oxide bonded on biochar in an acidic environment upon removal of phosphorus are protonated, the biochar surface electrical properties are modified to adsorb phosphate ions to the biochar surface by electrostatic attraction between the electrical charges, and in this light the skilled person is able to think of lowering the pH of the wastewater and delivering carbon dioxide into the wastewater. Accordingly, claims 10-11 are not inventive.
Conclusions
Claims 1-11 and 18 are rejected.
Claims 12-17 and 19 are withdrawn.
Telephone Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Yong L. Chu, whose telephone number is (571)272-5759. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:30am-5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amber R. Orlando can be reached on 571-270-3149. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
Status Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/YONG L CHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1731
