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 .
This action is in response to the application filed 02/15/2024 and the IDS’s filed 03/27/2024 and 08/07/2025.
Claims 1-13 are pending and being examined.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 and 11-12 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.
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 (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 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.
Claims 1-2, 8-10, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawanami (JP 2016-124730 A) in view of Yukimoto (JP 2010-209235 A) and Okajima (JP 2015-013759 A).
Considering claims 1 and 9, Kawanami teaches a high-pressure hydrogen supply system and method in which a mixed gas of hydrogen and carbon dioxide is obtained by dehydrogenation reaction of formic acid by use of a complex catalyst (Kawanami, [0001]-[0016], [0024]). Kawanami teaches hydrogen is separated from the mixed gas and provided at a pressure of 5 MPa or more (Kawanami, [0014]). Kawanami teaches a means of obtaining the mixed gas at a pressure of 5 MPA or more by the dehydrogenation reaction in the reactor (Kawanami, [0014]). Kawanami taches cooling the mixed gas by a separator with a pressure being kept at 0.4 or more and thus removing a gas component (i.e., carbon dioxide) other than hydrogen as a liquid or a solid by phase separation (Kawanami, [0035]-[0037]).
Kawanami teaches a hydrogen purity of 75% (Kawanami, [0041]), he does not explicitly teach increasing the purity of hydrogen separated by pressure swing adsorption and sending continuously the hydrogen to an accumulator and preserving the hydrogen so as to be at a pressure of 70 MPa or more.
However, Yukimoto teaches cooling a raw material gas comprising hydrogen and carbon dioxide to separate carbon dioxide in the raw material gas in a liquid state and sending the raw material gas from which carbon dioxide has been removed to a PSA device for further purification of the raw material gas and producing a higher purity hydrogen (Yukimoto, [0023]-[0024]). Okajima teaches producing high pressure hydrogen and supplying it to a supply destination such as a fuel cell vehicle; the hydrogen station is configured to include a hydrogen production device and a pressure accumulator that stores hydrogen produced by the hydrogen production device, and the hydrogen stored in the pressure accumulator is supplied to the fuel cell vehicle; the accumulator is installed to absorb load fluctuations in the amount of hydrogen consumed (Okajima, [0001]-[0003], [0005]). Okajima teaches storing hydrogen at 82 MPa (Okajima, [0024]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to increase the purity of hydrogen separated by pressure swing adsorption and sending continuously the hydrogen to an accumulator and preserving the hydrogen so as to be at a pressure of 70 MPa or more. One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to do so in order to generate a high purity hydrogen that can be stored at a supply destination for supplying a fuel cell vehicle supply with a reasonable expectation of success.
Considering claims 2 and 10, Kawanami does not explicitly teach a step of removing a mist component form the mixed gas after the dehydrogenation reaction.
However, Yukimoto teaches removal of water prior to cooling of the raw material gas comprising hydrogen and carbon dioxide to separate carbon dioxide in the raw material gas in a liquid state so that other components (i.e., water) do not liquefy or solidify while the carbon dioxide is cooled until it liquefies, thereby preventing corrosion, damage, or clogging of the separator (i.e., liquefier) (Yukimoto, [0029]-[0031]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to include a step of removing a mist component form the mixed gas after the dehydrogenation reaction. One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would have been motivated to do so in order to prevent corrosion, damage, or clogging of the separator due to other components liquefying and/or solidifying with a reasonable expectation of success.
Considering claims 8 and 13, Kawanami teaches the complex catalyst is an organometallic complex comprising one, or two or more transition metals selected form iridium, rhodium, ruthenium, cobalt, osmium, nickel, iron, palladium, platinum and gold, or a salt of such a complex (Kawanami, [0024]-[0025]).
Conclusion
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/ANITA NASSIRI-MOTLAGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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