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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adam et al. (WO 2021/204821) in view of Al-Yassir (WO 2017/109640).
Regarding claims 1, 15, 16 and 18, Adam discloses providing a waste plastic pyrolysis oil having a first boiling point ranging from about 30 °C to about 250 °C (page 7, lines 35-37; page 8, line 1); passing the waste plastic pyrolysis oil through at least one guard bed configured to adsorb chlorine components when present in the waste plastic pyrolysis oil (page 7, lines 14-18); providing a hydrocarbon stream having a second boiling point ranging from about 30 °C to about 250 °C (Figures 1 and 2; page 11, lines 23-27); combining the hydrocarbon stream with the waste plastic pyrolysis oil to provide a combined feed stream (Figures 1 and 2; page 11, lines 23-27); and feeding the combined feed stream, to a fluid catalytic cracking unit, to yield a hydrocarbon product stream comprising a mixture of gaseous C1-C4 olefins and liquid C5 and C5+ hydrocarbons (page 11, lines 31-33).
Adam fails to disclose that the fluid catalytic cracking unit comprises a catalytic cracking catalyst comprising a HZSM-5 zeolite and the combined feed stream is fed to a fluid catalytic cracking unit along with steam.
Al-Yassir teaches D4 discloses the catalytic steam cracking of a naphtha feedstock using a H- ZSM-5 catalyst ([0011], [0053]).
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the process of Adam by substituting the fluid catalytic cracking unit with the catalyst as described by Al-Yassir to utilize a process that results in less coke deposit byproduct ([0053]).
Regarding claims 2, 5-8 and 14, Adam further discloses the waste plastic pyrolysis oil through at least one additional guard bed configured to adsorb one or more of silicon, fluorine, bromine, phosphorus, or sulphur containing components when present in the waste plastic pyrolysis oil; the combined feed stream comprises at least about 1 wt.% of the waste plastic pyrolysis oil; the combined feed stream comprises up to about 90 wt.% of the waste plastic pyrolysis oil; the combined feed stream comprises from about 2 to about 20 wt.% of the waste plastic pyrolysis oil; the combined feed stream comprises from about 10 to about 20 wt.% of the waste plastic pyrolysis oil; and the waste plastic pyrolysis oil has not been hydrotreated (page 18, lines 22-27; page 22, lines 11-19; Figure 1).
Regarding claim 3, Al-Yassir further teaches the HZSM-5 zeolite comprises about 5 weight percent (wt.%) of P205 and comprises a silica-to-alumina molar ratio ranging from about 27 to about 50 (claims 11 and 14).
Regarding claims 4, 9, 10-13 and 17, although the combination is silent as to the specific values of the microsphere size, cracking temperature, and proportions by weight, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize such size/proportion parameters depending on a number of factors including the specific waste plastic type, quantities, piping/equipment containing the stream etc. Subsequently, it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980).
Regarding claims 19 and 20, Adam further discloses the combined feed stream comprises from about 2 to about 20 wt.% of the waste plastic pyrolysis oil; and a second guard bed configured to adsorb one or more of silicon, fluorine, bromine, phosphorus, or sulphur containing components from the waste plastic pyrolysis oil (page 18, lines 22-27; page 22, lines 11-19; Figure 1).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Narayanaswamy et al. (US 9447332), (US 9428695), (US 8895790) and (US 9212318) disclose methods of producing olefins and aromatics by cracking waste plastic pyrolysis oil similarly to that of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KYLE A ARMSTRONG whose telephone number is (571)270-1184. The examiner can normally be reached M-F ~10-6.
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KYLE ARMSTRONG, P.E.
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3678
/KYLE ARMSTRONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619