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 Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: in line 8 “methyl cyclohexane” should be “methylcyclohexane”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-20 are 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.
Claims 1-20 are indefinite because the claims recite the limitations “stabilizing” but does not recite any process steps that define the “stabilizing”. Also, the specification does not explicitly define “stabilizing”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 are not taught by the prior art and would be allowed if not for the claim objection and the 35 USC 112 rejections discussed above.
The prior art does not teach, nor does the prior art suggest: passing a first
saturated effluent stream and a second hydrocarbon stream to a second hydrogenation reactor in the hydrogenation reaction section in the presence of hydrogen and a second hydrogenation catalyst to produce a second saturated effluent stream comprising additional methyleyclohexane; passing the second saturated effluent stream to a polishing reactor in the presence of a polishing hydrogenation catalyst to produce a polishing reactor effluent stream, the polishing reactor operating in the vapor phase; separating the liquid stream and a second liquid stream; and stabilizing the second liquid stream to form a product stream comprising methyleyclohexane.
Prior art references such as, NPL document entitled Assessment of system variations for hydrogen transport by liquid organic hydrogen carriers discloses transport of hydrogen through LOCs, such as, toluene but the reference does not disclose the process steps discussed above.
The same can be said for the NPL document entitled Recent Advances in Catalysts and Membranes for MCH Dehydrogenation: A Mini Review which discloses many of the limitations of the instant claims but not the process steps discussed above.
Odi et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0355449 (Odi), and Cox et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0176783 (Cox) disclose hydrogenation methods using highly selective catalysts such that a total conversion of the highly unsaturated hydrocarbon is about 99 mol % or greater. However, neither reference discloses the process steps discussed above and which applicants have shown in the instant specification leads to higher methylcyclohexane conversion and reaction selectivity.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VISHAL V VASISTH whose telephone number is (571)270-3716. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-4:30 and 7:00-10:00p.
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/VISHAL V VASISTH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1771
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