DETAILED ACTION
This is the fourth Office Action regarding application number 18/749,664, filed on 06/21/2024, which claims priority to provisional application numbers 63/569,831 and 63/613,185, filed on 03/26/2024 and 12/21/2023.
This action is in response to the Applicant’s Response received 12/16/2025.
Status of Claims
Claims 1, 2, 6-12, 15, 16, 18, and 25-28 are currently pending.
Claims 3, 5, 13, 14, 19, and 24 are canceled.
Claims 25-28 are new.
Claims 1, 2, and 18 are amended.
Claims 1, 2, 6-12, 15, 16, 18, and 25-28 are examined below.
The rejection of claims 13, 14, and 19-24 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 has been withdrawn in light of the Applicant’s amendments.
No claim is allowed.
Response to Arguments
The Applicant’s arguments received 12/16/2025 have been carefully considered but they are not found persuasive.
The applicant urges the position that ALMOGY does not teach or fairly suggest the claimed first and second temperature ranges of 25-100C and 0-10C, respectively. Though the examiner concurs that ALMOGY does not teach a single embodiment or example having both ranges together simultaneously, the examiner asserts that the ranges claimed would be obvious to a skilled artisan.
ALMOGY states that “A system may be operated to achieve a desired temperature difference between the hot reservoir and the cold reservoir so that the heat engine operating between the hot and cold reservoir operates with a desired efficiency.” (para. 48). ALMOGY also explains that “temperatures of the hot and cold reservoirs may be selected so that during operation the heat engine…has an efficiency of at least about 12%” (para. 134), “The temperature of the cold reservoir may be cooled to a temperature TL, where TL is selected to optimize energy stored in the hot and cold reservoirs from which dispatchable energy is produced by operation of the heat engine.” (para. 139), “the operating temperatures of the cold reservoir, hot reservoir, photovoltaic portion of the receiver, heat transfer fluid HTF1 flowing through one or more channels of the solar thermal portion of the receiver, heat transfer fluid HTF2 carrying heat h2 from the heat pump, and fluid volume may be selected and optimized for any one of or any combination of factors, including: efficiency of electricity generated in the solar receiver by the photovoltaic cells; energy required by the heat pump to create the hot and cold reservoirs; efficiency of the heat engine to convert thermal energy to electricity; thermal losses to environment; cost of materials; and cost and volume of heat storage” (para. 110). The last passage would strongly suggest to skilled artisans to perform at least some basic calculations “to select and optimize” the reservoir temperatures for ideal performance. ALMOGY also describes that chillers can lower the cold reservoir temperature to about 0-10 Celsius (para. 90).
The examiner is unable to imagine that a reasonably intelligent and skilled artisan would read through ALMOGY with all of its directives to optimize the reservoir temperatures, and then be completely unaware or unable to think that slightly lowering or raising one or both of the reservoir temperatures to the ranges claimed would be ill-advised or non-obvious simply because ALMOGY describes minor temperature differences. A skilled artisan of ordinary talent and having the resources to construct ALMOGY’s system would certainly also perform the arguably-undergraduate-level calculations necessary to compute the ideal and optimized reservoir temperature ranges necessary to generate maximum power output considering all of the combination of other design factors.
For these reasons, even when conceding to the applicant’s assertion that ALMOGY discloses specific temperature ranges that lie outside the combination of temperature ranges of amended claims 1 and 16, the examiner asserts that the specific temperature ranges would be obvious
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 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 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 13, 14, 16-18, and 25-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ALMOGY (US 2016/0156309 A1) in view of INTRIERI (US 2016/0079915 A1), HARATS (WO 2013/014664 A2), and MATHER (US 5381860 A).
Regarding claim 1, ALMOGY teaches a system comprising:
a solar collector configured to receive sunlight, wherein the solar collector includes a solar thermal collector and a photovoltaic (PV) module (photovoltaic-thermal solar energy collector PVT, para. 97);
a hot energy storage (HES) configured to receive solar heat from the solar thermal collector and heat the HES to a first temperature range greater than 25 degrees Celsius (the hot reservoir may be operated at about 110° C.-120° C., para. 48; reference also discloses values down to 90);
a cold energy storage (CES) (cold reservoir);
a refrigeration unit (“chiller”) configured to cool the CES to a second temperature range less than the first temperature range (the cold reservoir temperature is by-definition less than the hot reservoir’s), wherein electrical power for the refrigeration unit is provided by the PV module and the thermodynamic generator;
a load including one or more electrical devices and a load fluid circuit configured to cool the load, wherein the load fluid circuit is in thermal communication with the CES (“the cooled thermal energy storage medium may be used for one or more cooling applications, which may be internal or external to the system,” paras. 15, 32, 94, 136), wherein electrical power for the load is supplied by the PV module and the thermodynamic generator;
a thermodynamic generator configured to provide electricity based on a temperature difference between the HES and a heat sink (heat engine capable of generating useful electrical work, i.e., electricity, from thermal energy, para. 89, and ALMOGY repeatedly illustrates that the hot storage is used as a thermal energy source for generating electrical energy, and also mentions the option of using thermoelectric devices; since “heat sink” is not defined it is interpreted to be the colder source that is used to power the thermodynamic generator; “Electrical energy e1 generated by the photovoltaic-thermal solar energy collector that is not used to drive the heat pump may be used for any suitable purpose, for example, … to supply power to … a cooling system,” para. 92); and
a return water line configured to direct return water from the load toward at least one of the HES and the CES (all of the energy diagrams in the figures include heat transfer fluids such as water, para. 85, and this fluid is dispatched between energy storage tanks and loads).
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ALMOGY does not disclose expressly that the load includes one or more electrical devices, only that the load may be either external or internal to the system. However, ALMOGY clearly is capable of use within an extensive set of use cases.
INTRIERI similarly teaches a heating and cooling system having photovoltaic panels generating electricity and collecting thermal energy. INTRIERI further describes examples of system use such as a corporate campus with a data center (para. 97). In said scenario, there is a hot water load and also a cooling load. Specifically, servers in data centers require air conditioning and temperature control to operate correctly.
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Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to combine together the teachings or ALMOGY and INTRIERI in order to cool sensitive electronic device loads such as data center servers to provide for proper operation of the electrical devices, as instructed by INTRIERI. The examiner also posits that even unskilled artisans are aware that electronic devices such as computers/servers generate waste heat that must be managed.
ALMOGY does not disclose expressly that the return water line is fluidly coupled to the HES and to the CES via a valve, configured to direct the return water from the load to the HES and/or the CES.
HARATS teaches a return fluid line is fluidly coupled to the HES and to the CES via a valve (Fig. 7 illustrates a return heat transfer fluid line from a solar field 22 that passes through at least one valve and is coupled fluidly to cold and hot storage tanks via these valves). HARATS writes positively of configurations like this as fluid that has not yet reached the required high temperature can still be recycled to the cold tank via the return line (pg. 9, ll. 24-26).
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Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to modify ALMOGY and arrange and configure a return fluid line is fluidly coupled to the HES and to the CES via a valve because it would allow fluid that has not yet reached the required high temperature be recycled to the cold tank via the return line as taught by HARATS.
ALMOGY does not disclose expressly that hot, cold, and PV water lines are fluidly coupled and directed to the energy storage units with a “laminar flow to prevent turbulence and the mixing of the fluid thermal mass across the thermocline”. ALMOGY does, however, discuss the benefits of using a thermocline and also includes clear illustrations of using a thermocline within the hot and cold storage tanks at Fig. 8B.
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MATHER is an analogous invention related to water-based thermal energy storage systems, and expressly teaches skilled artisans that liquid is inserted and extracted from tanks “using a laminar flow so as to minimize turbulence and mixing, and promote a narrow thermocline between the cooler and warmer liquid.” (col. 4, ll. 34-37).
Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to modify ALMOGY so that liquid is only inserted/extracted from tanks using laminar flows so as to minimize turbulence and mixing, and promote a narrow thermocline between the cooler and warmer liquid as explicitly taught by MATHER.
Finally, ALMOGY does not disclose expressly the first and second temperature ranges of 25-100C and 0-10C, respectively, in a single embodiment or example.
ALMOGY states that “A system may be operated to achieve a desired temperature difference between the hot reservoir and the cold reservoir so that the heat engine operating between the hot and cold reservoir operates with a desired efficiency.” (para. 48). ALMOGY also explains that “temperatures of the hot and cold reservoirs may be selected so that during operation the heat engine…has an efficiency of at least about 12%” (para. 134), “The temperature of the cold reservoir may be cooled to a temperature TL, where TL is selected to optimize energy stored in the hot and cold reservoirs from which dispatchable energy is produced by operation of the heat engine.” (para. 139), “the operating temperatures of the cold reservoir, hot reservoir, photovoltaic portion of the receiver, heat transfer fluid HTF1 flowing through one or more channels of the solar thermal portion of the receiver, heat transfer fluid HTF2 carrying heat h2 from the heat pump, and fluid volume may be selected and optimized for any one of or any combination of factors, including: efficiency of electricity generated in the solar receiver by the photovoltaic cells; energy required by the heat pump to create the hot and cold reservoirs; efficiency of the heat engine to convert thermal energy to electricity; thermal losses to environment; cost of materials; and cost and volume of heat storage” (para. 110). The last passage would strongly suggest to skilled artisans to perform at least some basic calculations “to select and optimize” the reservoir temperatures for ideal performance. ALMOGY also describes that chillers can lower the cold reservoir temperature to about 0-10 Celsius (para. 90).
The examiner asserts that a skilled artisan would understand ALMOGY’s directives to optimize the reservoir temperatures, and consider and find obvious slightly lowering or raising one or both of the reservoir temperatures to the ranges claimed. A skilled artisan of ordinary talent and having the resources to construct ALMOGY’s system would certainly also perform the arguably-undergraduate-level calculations necessary to compute the ideal and optimized reservoir temperature ranges necessary to generate maximum power output considering all of the combination of other design factors. The examiner also notes that since water is one of the common energy storage fluids, there would be logical limits for the cold and hot storage reservoirs of about 0 and about 100 degrees Celsius, respectively, because these are the well-known temperatures of freezing and boiling for water.
The examiner does not identify any passage or other compelling reason to lead a skilled artisan to any other conclusion, such as any teaching away or other significant change in the overall principle of operation.
After modification, the examiner asserts that the PV module is configured to provide solar electrical power to the load and the refrigeration unit (ALMOGY, “solar-generated electrical energy We that is used to power the heat pump,” para. 43; INTRIERI, “the electric portion of the hybrid solar array powers the air conditioner,” para. 35). Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to connect together the PV modules which produce electricity to nearby electricity demanding devices because it is a straightforward and simple combination of known elements to achieve entirely expected outcomes. Even unskilled artisans would recognize the benefit of connecting a PV module to a nearby electrical load.
Also after modification, the examiner asserts that the thermodynamic generator is configured to provide electrical power to the load (ALMOGY employs heat engines to generate electrical energy from thermal energy in the hot reservoir, Fig. 1). Skilled artisans would find it obvious to dispatch the generated electricity to power loads during high demand times as taught by ALMOGY (see also para. 5).
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Regarding claim 2, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, wherein the CES includes a cool region in a cool temperature range of between 10 °C and 25 °C, wherein the cold region and the cool region share a fluid in direct contact across the thermocline (ALMOGY states that the fluid in the cold reservoir may be vertically stratified by temperature, illustrated by a dashed line, with cooler fluid residing below hotter fluid, para. 122; this is interpreted to read on the recited “thermocline”).
Regarding claim 4, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, wherein the HES includes a hot region in a hot temperature range and a warm region in a warm temperature range, wherein the hot region and the warm region share a fluid in direct contact across a thermocline (ALMOGY states that the fluid in the hot reservoir may be vertically stratified by temperature, illustrated by a dashed line, with higher temperature fluid residing above lower temperature fluid, para. 122; this is interpreted to read on the recited “thermocline”).
Regarding claim 6, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, further comprising one or more additional energy storage units, wherein the one or more additional energy storage units include one or more of a battery, a compressed air energy storage device, a liquid air energy storage device, and a pumped hydro storage device (“a battery” is interpreted as an “energy storage unit” because it stores electrical energy, and the claim does not further limit exactly how this storage unit connects to the entire system, simply that it exists).
Regarding claim 7, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, further comprising a geothermal well producing geothermal heat, wherein the geothermal heat is provided to the HES and/or to the thermodynamic generator (ALMOGY describes that a “geothermal heat pump” may be used, as well as a hybrid heat pump using the ground as a cold reservoir, para. 87; in the “forward direction” these heat pumps would pull heat from the ground/geothermal source and send it to a higher temperature heat sink, which obviously could be an actual heat sink or the hotter storage devices).
.
Regarding claim 16, ALMOGY teaches a method of cooling a load including one or more electrical devices comprising:
receiving sunlight at least at a solar collector including a solar thermal collector and a photovoltaic (PV) module (photovoltaic-thermal solar energy collector PVT, para. 97);
transferring solar heat from the sunlight to a hot energy storage (HES) via the solar collector and heating the HES to a first temperature range greater than 25 degrees Celsius (energy from PVT modules are transferred to a hot reservoir, the hot reservoir may be operated at about 110° C.-120° C., para. 48);
providing solar electrical power from the solar collector to a refrigeration unit (electrical energy We can be directed over to chillers, Fig. 11);
cooling a cold energy storage (CES) to a second temperature range less than the first temperature range using the refrigeration unit (chilling mechanicals cool a material for storage in a cold reservoir);
cooling the load with the CES via a load fluid circuit of the load, wherein the load fluid circuit is in thermal communication with the CES (“the cooled thermal energy storage medium may be used for one or more cooling applications, which may be internal or external to the system,” paras. 15, 32, 94, 136);
returning water from the load toward at least one of the HES and CES via a return water line (all of the energy diagrams in the figures include heat transfer fluids such as water, para. 85, and this fluid is dispatched between energy storage tanks and loads); and
producing electrical power using a thermodynamic generator and heat from temperature difference between the HES and a heat sink (heat engine capable of generating useful electrical work, i.e., electricity, from thermal energy, para. 89, and ALMOGY repeatedly illustrates that the hot storage is used as a thermal energy source for generating electrical energy, and also mentions the option of using thermoelectric devices; since “heat sink” is not defined it is interpreted to be the colder source that is used to power the thermodynamic generator; “Electrical energy e1 generated by the photovoltaic-thermal solar energy collector that is not used to drive the heat pump may be used for any suitable purpose, for example, … to supply power to … a cooling system,” para. 92).
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ALMOGY does not disclose expressly that the load includes one or more electrical devices, only that the load may be either external or internal to the system. However, ALMOGY clearly is capable of use within an extensive set of use cases.
INTRIERI similarly teaches a heating and cooling system having photovoltaic panels generating electricity and collecting thermal energy. INTRIERI further describes examples of system use such as a corporate campus with a data center (para. 97). In said scenario, there is a hot water load and also a cooling load. Specifically, servers in data centers require air conditioning and temperature control to operate correctly.
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Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to combine together the teachings or ALMOGY and INTRIERI in order to cool sensitive electronic device loads such as data center servers to provide for proper operation of the electrical devices, as instructed by INTRIERI. The examiner also posits that even unskilled artisans are aware that electronic devices such as computers/servers generate waste heat that must be managed.
ALMOGY does not disclose expressly that the return water line is fluidly coupled to the HES and to the CES via a valve, configured to direct the return water from the load to the HES and/or the CES.
HARATS teaches a return fluid line is fluidly coupled to the HES and to the CES via a valve (Fig. 7 illustrates a return heat transfer fluid line from a solar field 22 that passes through at least one valve and is coupled fluidly to cold and hot storage tanks via these valves). HARATS writes positively of configurations like this as fluid that has not yet reached the required high temperature can still be recycled to the cold tank via the return line (pg. 9, ll. 24-26).
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Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to modify ALMOGY and arrange and configure a return fluid line is fluidly coupled to the HES and to the CES via a valve because it would allow fluid that has not yet reached the required high temperature be recycled to the cold tank via the return line as taught by HARATS.
ALMOGY does not disclose expressly that hot, cold, and PV water lines are fluidly coupled and directed to the energy storage units with a “laminar flow to prevent turbulence and the mixing of the fluid thermal mass across the thermocline”. ALMOGY does, however, discuss the benefits of using a thermocline and also includes clear illustrations of using a thermocline within the hot and cold storage tanks at Fig. 8B.
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MATHER is an analogous invention related to water-based thermal energy storage systems, and expressly teaches skilled artisans that liquid is inserted and extracted from tanks “using a laminar flow so as to minimize turbulence and mixing, and promote a narrow thermocline between the cooler and warmer liquid.” (col. 4, ll. 34-37).
Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to modify ALMOGY so that liquid is only inserted/extracted from tanks using laminar flows so as to minimize turbulence and mixing, and promote a narrow thermocline between the cooler and warmer liquid as explicitly taught by MATHER.
Finally, ALMOGY does not disclose expressly the first and second temperature ranges of 25-100C and 0-10C, respectively, in a single embodiment or example.
ALMOGY states that “A system may be operated to achieve a desired temperature difference between the hot reservoir and the cold reservoir so that the heat engine operating between the hot and cold reservoir operates with a desired efficiency.” (para. 48). ALMOGY also explains that “temperatures of the hot and cold reservoirs may be selected so that during operation the heat engine…has an efficiency of at least about 12%” (para. 134), “The temperature of the cold reservoir may be cooled to a temperature TL, where TL is selected to optimize energy stored in the hot and cold reservoirs from which dispatchable energy is produced by operation of the heat engine.” (para. 139), “the operating temperatures of the cold reservoir, hot reservoir, photovoltaic portion of the receiver, heat transfer fluid HTF1 flowing through one or more channels of the solar thermal portion of the receiver, heat transfer fluid HTF2 carrying heat h2 from the heat pump, and fluid volume may be selected and optimized for any one of or any combination of factors, including: efficiency of electricity generated in the solar receiver by the photovoltaic cells; energy required by the heat pump to create the hot and cold reservoirs; efficiency of the heat engine to convert thermal energy to electricity; thermal losses to environment; cost of materials; and cost and volume of heat storage” (para. 110). The last passage would strongly suggest to skilled artisans to perform at least some basic calculations “to select and optimize” the reservoir temperatures for ideal performance. ALMOGY also describes that chillers can lower the cold reservoir temperature to about 0-10 Celsius (para. 90).
The examiner asserts that a skilled artisan would understand ALMOGY’s directives to optimize the reservoir temperatures, and consider and find obvious slightly lowering or raising one or both of the reservoir temperatures to the ranges claimed. A skilled artisan of ordinary talent and having the resources to construct ALMOGY’s system would certainly also perform the arguably-undergraduate-level calculations necessary to compute the ideal and optimized reservoir temperature ranges necessary to generate maximum power output considering all of the combination of other design factors. The examiner also notes that since water is one of the common energy storage fluids, there would be logical limits for the cold and hot storage reservoirs of about 0 and about 100 degrees Celsius, respectively, because these are the well-known temperatures of freezing and boiling for water.
The examiner does not identify any passage or other compelling reason to lead a skilled artisan to any other conclusion, such as any teaching away or other significant change in the overall principle of operation.
Regarding claim 17, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the method of claim 16, further comprising providing the electrical power from the thermodynamic generator to the load (ALMOGY employs heat engines to generate electrical energy from thermal energy in the hot reservoir, Fig. 1). Skilled artisans would find it obvious to dispatch the generated electricity to power loads during high demand times as taught by ALMOGY (see also para. 5).
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Regarding claim 18, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the method of claim 16, wherein producing electrical power using a thermodynamic generator includes producing electrical power using the HES as a heat source and the CES or ambient air as a heat sink (ALMOGY repeatedly and consistently teaches that thermodynamic generators such as heat engines are added and use the hot storage and cold storage, and my output electrical energy, para. 89).
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Regarding claims 25 and 26, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, but does not disclose expressly that a storage temperature difference between the HES and the CES is approximately 90 °C (claim 25) of that the warm region and the hot region have a hot temperature difference of greater than 60 °C (claim 26). However, as discussed above, ALMOGY explains repeatedly through its text that the temperatures used for the operative fluids are specifically selected and optimized to achieve desired power output. Therefore, skilled artisans would have found it obvious to adjust and select values of the HES/CES and the warm/hot regions so that they have the claimed relationships because these similar (if not overlapping) ranges produce a system that would be expected to product useful power with a reasonable expectation of success and unsurprising results.
Regarding claim 27, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, wherein the PV module, the refrigeration unit, the thermodynamic generator, and the load are off grid and not connected to a power grid (“External energy e3 need not be from the grid”, ALMOGY, para. 143; ALMOGY, para. 54 also suggests power grid alternatives such as “a generator, a battery, another solar energy collector, a wind turbine, a hydroelectric source, mechanical energy, energy derived from burning fossil fuels or plant-based fuels, and the like”; it would be obvious to substitute any of the listed energy sources since they are all obviously energy-producing equivalents).
Regarding claim 28, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 27, further comprising an energy storage mechanism for storing electrical energy (ALMOGY, para. 34 describes battery use; and the claim does not require that the stored electrical energy come from any specific source).
Claims 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ALMOGY (US 2016/0156309 A1) in view of INTRIERI (US 2016/0079915 A1), HARATS (WO 2013/014664 A2), and MATHER (US 5381860 A) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of KANACK (US 2010/0288267 A1), CHEN (CN 110057003 A), and CHOI (KR 101829862 B1).
Regarding claims 8-11, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, but does not disclose expressly exactly how a controller is configured to control the valve of the return water line to selectively direct at least a portion of the return water based at least partially on various temperatures.
KANACK describes a heat management system having a system controller configured with an algorithm that takes into account various physical parameters such as water temperature and environmental conditions (para. 5).
Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to modify ALMOGY further and add a system controller configured with an algorithm that takes into account various physical parameters such as water temperature and environmental conditions to ensure proper system operation as taught by KANACK.
Skilled artisans would likewise instantly identify certain “environmental conditions” as important parameters, including ambient temperature, humidity, dew point, wet-bulb temperature, and would also monitor the water temperature are variously points within the circulation system. KANACK describes the system controller as “intelligent” and should be designed to require only “minimal user intervention”. Skilled artisans would recognize that an intelligent system controller should be capable of monitoring the temperature at various critical points within the entire system, because this is literally the only method of properly monitoring and controlling the balance and movement of heat flow throughout the system. The examiner further asserts that these concepts are quite basic and obvious, and would be understood and appreciated even by undergraduate students in chemical engineering.
Additionally, the examiner cites as prior art CHEN and CHOI, which respectively describe identifying and monitoring temperatures including wet-bulb temperature and geothermal bore temperatures. CHEN and CHOI each explain that these temperatures affect overall system performance. Skilled artisans would recognize it as obvious to employ the teachings of both CHEN and CHOI to monitor various important system area temperatures that would in turn affect overall system performance, such as ambient wet-bulb temperature and subsurface formation temperature within geothermal structures, because this adaptation is only a simple and straightforward combination of known elements and methods to achieve entirely unsurprising outcomes. MPEP 2143.
Claims 12 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ALMOGY (US 2016/0156309 A1) in view of INTRIERI (US 2016/0079915 A1), HARATS (WO 2013/014664 A2), and MATHER (US 5381860 A) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of CHEN (CN 110057003 A).
Regarding claims 12 and 15, modified ALMOGY teaches or would have suggested the system of claim 1, but does not disclose expressly a cooling tower or a ground source well configured to receive return water from the load fluid circuit, wherein the cooling tower or ground source well lowers a return water temperature before the return water returns to the CES (claim 12), or that the heat sink is ambient air or the CES (claim 15).
CHEN teaches using a cooling tower and ambient air to cool an amount of cooling water (para. 4).
Skilled artisans would have found it obvious to modify ALMOGY and add a cooling tower to function as an ambient air heat sink in order to cool and amount of water that needs cooled, as taught by CHEN. Skilled artisans would instantly appreciate the limited locations where adding such a cooling tower would be appropriate because cooling towers are well-known within the field of endeavor and are employed in a wide variety of applications, and have been for many, many decades. Here, skilled artisans could deduce without difficulty that connecting a cooling tower functioning as an ambient air heat sink should be connected between the load and a cold energy storage tank because this would be the ideal place and would obviously function to pre-cool the load water that was previously heated by electrical devices, all in order to prevent the cold energy storage tank from needlessly receiving excess heat/warmth. Such a modification to arrive at the invention claimed requires only a straightforward combination of known elements to achieve entirely expected outcomes. MPEP 2143.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGELO TRIVISONNO whose telephone number is (571) 272-5201 or by email at <angelo.trivisonno@uspto.gov>. The examiner can normally be reached on MONDAY-FRIDAY, 9:00a-5:00pm EST. The examiner's supervisor, NIKI BAKHTIARI, can be reached at (571) 272-3433.
/ANGELO TRIVISONNO/
Primary Examiner