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 § 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.
Claim(s) 10-13 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishikawa et al. (EP 4119245), as cited in the IDS dated 7/22/2025, hereinafter “Nishikawa.”
Regarding claim 10, Nishikawa teaches a method for recycling a waste lithium ion secondary battery (Fig. 1, Example 1), the method comprising:
(a) charging a waste lithium ion secondary battery into a pyrolysis furnace (first, lithium ion secondary batteries with a total weight of 400 kg, with an average Ni ratio of 75% in the amounts of Co, Ni, Mn, and Al in the positive electrode active substance, with a residual voltage of 100%, were put in a SUS304 storing container having a width of 2,350 mm, a depth of 1,650 mm, a height of 400 mm, and a plate thickness of 4 mm. This container was disposed in the center of a furnace ([0207])/
(b) increasing an internal temperature of the pyrolysis furnace while stirring the waste lithium ion secondary battery to induce self-heating of the waste lithium ion secondary battery (in the thermal treatment using the flames of the burners, first, the temperature in the furnace was elevated from about 20°C to 400°C in 1 hour ([0210]). Nishikawa teaches that the batteries are put in a storage container to prevent damage to the furnace due to the heavy thermal reaction ([0096]); one of ordinary skill in the art would except some stirring/mixing of the battery waste to occur due to the use of the storage container during the heavy thermal reaction. Alternatively, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to stir the battery during heating to achieve a uniform temperature distribution. This stirring/mixing would necessarily result in a self-heating effect);
(c) continuing the self-heating reaction of the waste lithium ion secondary battery (the ignition of the lithium ion secondary batteries by spontaneous combustion (self-sustained combustion) continued for 30 minutes, and the temperature of the lithium ion secondary batteries went up 800⁰C at the maximum from 430⁰C, which was when the temperature immediately before the spontaneous combustion ([0211]));
(d) discharging a first powder prepared after the self-heating reaction of the waste lithium ion secondary battery is completed (subsequently, the storing container was taken out from the furnace, and the lithium ion secondary batteries (after being thermally treated) inside and aluminum recovered into the slit in the bottom of the storing container were recovered. Next, using a hammer crasher as a pulverizer, the thermally treated lithium ion secondary batteries (thermally treated product of the lithium ion secondary batteries) were pulverized at 50 Hz (at the hammer circumferential speed of 38 m/s) with a punching metal hole diameter of 10 mm at the outlet, to obtain a pulverized product of the lithium ion secondary batteries ([0211]-[0212]); and
(e) magnetically separating the first powder into a second powder that is driven by a magnetic force and a third powder that is not driven by a magnetic force (the fine-grained product (100 kg) obtained by the classification was immersed in water (400 L), to leach lithium into water at a solid-liquid
ratio of 25% at a stirring speed of 400 rpm for a leaching time of 1 hour. Using a drum-shaped magnetic sorter, the slurry obtained by leaching lithium into water was subjected to wet magnetic sorting (wet magnetic force sorting) at a magnetic force of 1,500G at a drum rotation number of 45 rpm at a solid-liquid ratio of 25% at a slurry supplying speed of 100 L/h/min, to recover magnetically attractable materials, and a slurry (200 L) containing non-magnetically attractable materials. The slurry containing
non-magnetically attractable materials was subjected to pressure filtration at a pressure of 0.6 MPa with a filter press using a filter cloth (product name: PP934K, obtained from Nakao Filter Media Corp.), to separate the non-magnetically attractable materials by solid-liquid separation and obtain a lithium-leached liquid (lithium-containing solution) ([0215]). Nishikawa further shows a recovered powder comprising Ni and Co (Tables 1-2)).
As to claim 11, Nishikawa teaches wherein in the charging step (a), the waste lithium ion secondary battery is not a in a state of discharge ([0207]).
Regarding claim 12, Nishikawa teaches wherein the temperature is about 20°C to 400°C ([0210]).
With respect to claim 13, Nishikawa teaches lowering heating after self-combustion ([0083], [0084]), which necessarily stops heating for at least some arts of the self-combustion, and further discloses that the burning operations of all the burners were stopped, to release heat for one hour ([0211]), which reads on wherein the pyrolysis furnace is not heated.
Regarding claim 15, Nishikawa teaches wherein the thermal treatment may be carried out in an inert atmosphere ([0068]), which reads on an inert gas atmosphere.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 14 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 14, the prior art fails to disclose or fairly suggest the method as recited. In particular, the closest prior art, Nishikawa (EP 4119245) teaches/renders obvious the method as recited in claim 10. However, Nishikawa does not teach or adequately suggest wherein the step (c) lasts for 10 to 24 hours. In contrast, Nishikawa teaches thermal treatment times of up to 5 hours and further teaches away from a thermal treatment time of over 5 hours ([0068]). Thus, claim 14 is distinct over the teachings of the prior art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY M LIANG whose telephone number is (571)272-0483. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00am-5:00pm.
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/ANTHONY M LIANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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