CTNF 18/812,725 CTNF 89243 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. This communication is in response to the application filed 8/22/2024. Claims 1-14 are pending. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-23-aia AIA 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 no obviousness. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1-6, 9-11, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huq (US 2018/0298289) in view of Koseoglu (US 11,130,920) . With respect to claim 1 , Huq teaches process for upgrading bitumen using thermal treatment and deasphalting (abstract). The process includes providing a bitumen, performing thermal upgrading, separating light bitumen product from a residue stream, and deasphalting the residue to produce a deasphalted oil upgraded bitumen (e.g. Figure 9; 0007). The process decreases bitumen viscosity and increase suitability for pipeline transportation (0002; throughout). Huq is silent regarding wherein the deasphalting steps utilizes a naphtha fraction recovered from the distillation of the thermally treated bitumen as the solvent or mixing the distillate/gas oil fraction separated from the original feed with the deasphalted oil forming a partially upgraded bitumen. However, Koseoglu, directed to partially upgrading of whole crude oil to produce a synthetic crude oil, teaches performing an initial distillation to separate naphtha, distillates and residual fractions (col. 2, line 35+). Koseoglu teaches processing a whole crude oil comprising first distillation or other series separation steps to produce a naphtha stream, a distillate stream, and a residue stream (col. 8, lines 38+; Figure 1A). The naphtha stream, with our without separation or hydroprocessing, is passed to the deasphalting unit where it is combined with the residue to produce a deasphalted oil and asphalt stream (col. 9, line 27+). The deasphalted oil may be combined with the middle distillates to form a combined synthetic crude oil stream (col. 10, line 37 to col. 11, line 4). Therefore, before the filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Huq using naphtha separated from the feedstream as the deasphalting solvent and to recombine the deasphalted oil and distillates to form a synthetic crude oil as disclosed in Koseoglu because both are directed to producing synthetic crude oil using distillation and residue deasphalting, Koseoglu teaches the benefits of no or minimized outside solvent requirements and that solvent separation from deasphalted oil is not required, and it is obvious to combine process steps according to known methods to do no more than produce predictable results, here of deasphalting the residue and increasing the production of synthetic crude oil. With respect to claim 2 , Huq teaches wherein the thermal upgrading is performed at the following conditions: a temperature of 200-475C (0007), which overlaps the claimed range of 400-550˚C, a residence time of up to 300 minutes (0014), which encompasses the claimed range of 10-120 minutes, and a pressure of 50-1500 psig (0007). With respect to claim 3 , Koseoglu teaches separating a naphtha range fraction which occurs at a cut point of less than 270C (see col. 6, line 58- col. 7, line 26 for disclosure of naphtha cut points) and an atmospheric or vacuum residue for deasphalting, which includes a cut point greater than 400˚C (see e.g. vacuum residue col 7 or table 3). With respect to claim 4 , Huq teaches wherein the upgrading may reduce or eliminate the need for added diluent to meet pipeline specification (0027), thus teaches wherein the partially upgraded bitumen meets pipeline specifications. With respect to claim 5 , Huq teaches wherein the product bitumen may meet pipeline specifications with or without diluent (0022). This includes the specification claimed of a viscosity of less than or equal to 350 cSt at pipeline temperature, a density of less than or equal to 940 kg/m 3 , an API gravity greater than or equal to 19, a base sediment and water content of less than 0.5 vol.%, and an olefin content of less than 1 wt.%. The product resulting from the combination of Huq in view of Koseoglu will include distillates in the synthetic crude oil which would be expected to further bring the properties of the crude in line with the pipeline specification. With respect to claim 6 , Huq teaches an example wherein 4% diluent were to be added to a thermally treated and deasphalted bitumen (0198). This falls within the claimed range. Further, with the recombination of the gas oil fraction in the combined process, the diluent would be expected to be the same or less. With respect to claim 9 , Koseoglu teaches wherein “[t]he solvent composition, operating temperature and solvent-to-oil ratio are selected to achieve the desired split between the lighter DAO and heavy asphaltenes products” (col. 1). The temperature and pressure are typically maintained to operate in liquid phase (col. 28), which includes the temperature and pressure claimed. The ratio of naphtha to residue is 2:1 to 1:30 (col. 31). With respect to claim 10 , Huq in view of Koseoglu teach the claim limitations discussed above. Huq teaches wherein the bitumen may be conditioned (0178), may include light fraction or diluent (0008; 0017), i.e. dilbit, or may be diluent-depleted bitumen in which light components have been removed (0082). After thermal treatment the lighter fraction may be removed, i.e. separating the light stream into diluent and second light stream. Koseoglu teaches using naphtha with or without separation of light components and with or without first hydroprocessing such as desulfurization not shown, or sending a portion of the crude to hydroprocessing, separating naphtha 114 and using that at solvent (col. 9). Huq appears to teach using diluted bitumen as the selected bitumen feedstock. Alternatively, before the filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the feedstock of Huq to include dilbit because Huq teaches using bitumen feedstocks which may include light components and teaches using mixtures of hydrocarbon feedstream and dilbit is a mixture of bitumen with hydrocarbon. With respect to the separation of diluent from the naphtha prior to hydroprocessing and use as a deasphalting solvent, Koseoglu teaches optional separation and hydroprocessing of the light fraction from the distillation column prior to use as a solvent in deasphalting. Where the light fraction from the distillation column includes diluent, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the combined process to separate the diluent from the naphtha prior to use of the naphtha as the deasphalting solvent because Koseoglu teaches optional separation to recover naphtha for use as the solvent and also hydrotreating a mixed feed 108 and separating naphtha from the mixed stream for use in deasphalting, separating diluent allows obtaining the desired naphtha and desired solvent properties, the dilbit solvent could be recycled for reuse if separated and recovered, and it is obvious to combine process steps according to known methods to do no more than produce predictable results, here removal of solvent from a hydrocarbon stream is known and such would provide predictable results of isolating the naphtha for use in solvent deasphalting. With respect to claim 11 , Huq teaches wherein the thermal upgrading is performed at the following conditions: a temperature of 200-475C (0007), which overlaps the claimed range of 400-550˚C, a residence time of up to 300 minutes (0014), which encompasses the claimed range of 10-120 minutes, and a pressure of 50-1500 psig (0007). With respect to claim 14 , Koseoglu teaches deasphalting with the naphtha from the original feed alone or with an additional external solvent (col. 12, lines 34-41) . 07-22-aia AIA Claim (s) 7-8 and 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huq and Koseoglu as applied to claim s 1 and 10 above, and further in view of Corscadden (CA 3030277 2020/07/15) . With respect to claims 7 and 12 , the art teaches the limitations as discussed above, including separating a high carbon pitch fraction from the deasphalting unit. Huq and Koseoglu are silent regarding converting the high-carbon pitch to a carbon product. Corscadden is directed to a process for simultaneously producing higher value pipeline crudes and carbon products from a heavy crude feedstock (page 34) such as bitumen (page 35). Corscadden teaches supplying a bitumen feed to a thermal treatment unit 30, recovering a light and a heavy effluent, and subjecting the heavy effluent to deasphalting producing deasphalted oil and asphalt (figure 1; page 4, lines 5+). The asphalt may be treated to produce a carbon fiber product (page 6, lines 1-15). The deasphalted oil is mixed with the lighter hydrocarbon condensed, forming a pipeable crude oil. Therefore, before the filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the asphalt of Huq in view of Koseoglu by further treating to produce a carbon fiber product as taught in Corscadden because both are directed to processes for upgrading heavy hydrocarbon or bitumen for producing pipeable crude and asphalt by product, Corscadden teaches using the asphalt to produce a carbon fiber product, and it is a prima facie case of obviousness to combine prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. With respect to claims 8 and 13 , Corscadden teaches producing carbon fiber from the asphalt (page 6, line 15). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brandi Doyle whose telephone number is (571)270-1141. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Prem Singh can be reached at (571)272-6381. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /BRANDI M DOYLE/Examiner, Art Unit 1771 /PREM C SINGH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1771 Application/Control Number: 18/812,725 Page 2 Art Unit: 1771 Application/Control Number: 18/812,725 Page 3 Art Unit: 1771 Application/Control Number: 18/812,725 Page 4 Art Unit: 1771 Application/Control Number: 18/812,725 Page 5 Art Unit: 1771 Application/Control Number: 18/812,725 Page 6 Art Unit: 1771 Application/Control Number: 18/812,725 Page 7 Art Unit: 1771 Application/Control Number: 18/812,725 Page 8 Art Unit: 1771
Prosecution Insights