DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species 1 drawn to Figures 1,6,7 in the reply filed on 12/30/2025 is acknowledged. Applicant indicates that Species 1 is drawn to claims 11-13,15, however upon review of the claims it appears that Claim 13 is drawn to the Species 2 of Figure 8 as it recites a bypass around the first catalytic device. Further non-elected claim 14 appears to be drawn to Species 1 as it recites a third catalyst downstream of the second catalyst. As such it appears that the election of 13 and omission of 14 was an inadvertent error, and the examiner will be examining claim 14 on the merits, and will not be considering claim 13 as being drawn to a non-elected embodiment. Claims 11-12,14-15 will be examined herein with claims 13,16-20 being withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
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.
Claims 11,14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 11415034 to Montgomery in view of US Patent 10634030 to Li and further in view of US Patent 8562925 to Sarby.
As to claim 11, Montgomery discloses a flue gas treatment device configured to treat a flue gas from a combustion device that combusts fuel containing ammonia (Col 3, Line 20-29), the flue gas treatment device comprising: a first treatment unit having a first catalyst that decomposes ammonia contained in the flue gas (first treatment unit is interpreted as: 114 oxidation catalyst for Ammonia, and 110 SCR); a second treatment unit having a second catalyst that decomposes NOx contained in the flue gas in which ammonia was decomposed by the first treatment unit (124), and a first supply unit configured to supply ammonia or urea water into the flue gas supplied from the first treatment unit to the second treatment unit (126, 128).
While Montgomery acknowledges the issues of N20 (nitrous oxide) in the system (Col 3, Line 35-42) it does not expressly disclose how it deals with the N20. Montgomery does not expressly disclose how
second catalyst that decomposes nitrous oxide;
a detection unit configured to determine a concentration of nitrous oxide contained in the flue gas that passed through the second treatment unit; and a first supply unit configured to supply ammonia or urea water into the flue gas supplied from the first treatment unit to the second treatment unit when the concentration of nitrous oxide contained in the flue gas is higher than a first predetermined concentration, wherein the second catalyst is a catalyst that reduces and decomposes nitrous oxide contained in the flue gas by ammonia.
Li discloses how an SCR can have an N2O catalyst combined with it to reduce N2O in the exhaust system (Fig 1, 1A; Col 3, Line 55-67, Col 13, Line 45-65, Col 14, Line 50-65).
Sarby discloses a detection unit configured to determine a concentration of nitrous oxide contained in the flue gas that passed through the second treatment unit (13,14 exhaust has passed through an SCR and Ammox catalyst equivalent to Montgomery [124, Col 3, Line 50-55]) and ; and a first supply unit (8,12) configured to supply ammonia or urea water into the flue gas supplied to the second treatment unit (SCR and Ammox catalyst equivalent to Montgomery [124, Col 3, Line 50-55] ) when the concentration of nitrous oxide contained in the flue gas is higher than a first predetermined concentration (Amin, Abs, Col 5, Line 55-Col 6, line 24).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the second catalyst (124) to include a composition that decomposes nitrous oxide;
a detection unit configured to determine a concentration of nitrous oxide contained in the flue gas that passed through the second treatment unit; and a first supply unit configured to supply ammonia or urea water into the flue gas supplied from the first treatment unit to the second treatment unit when the concentration of nitrous oxide contained in the flue gas is higher than a first predetermined concentration, wherein the second catalyst is a catalyst that reduces and decomposes nitrous oxide (124, combined with N2O catalyst) contained in the flue gas by ammonia (as caused by reaction of ammonia across upstream catalyst 114/110 and produced from combustion of ammonia in the engine), using the teachings of Li and Sarby, so as to further reduce the N2O in the exhaust by use of an N2O catalyst, while also monitoring any bleed through of either ammonia or N2O downstream of the Ammox catalyst (Montgomery Col 3, Line 50-55) so as to adjust the ammonia injection amount across the modified SCR catalyst 114 combined with N2O catalyst, so as to maintain the N2O levels within optimum range (Sarby: Col 5, Line 55-Col 6, line 24) reducing overall pollutant levels while minimizing the range of N2O capable of reaching the downstream sensor (Sarby: 17).
As to claim 14, Montgomery discloses comprising a third treatment unit configured to decompose ammonia contained in the flue gas that passed through the second treatment unit (Montgomery Col 3, Line 50-55).
As to claim 15, Montgomery discloses wherein the detection unit is to measure a concentration of NOx contained in the flue gas that passed through the second treatment unit (Col 5, line 20-25Col 6, Line 10-25), the first supply unit is configured to supply ammonia or urea water into the flue gas supplied from the first treatment unit to the second treatment unit when the concentration of NOx contained in the flue gas is higher than a second predetermined concentration (multiple injection amounts for multiple concentrations; Col 5, line 20-25,35-50, Col 6, Line 10-25), wherein the second catalyst is a catalyst that reduces and decomposes NOx contained in the flue gas by ammonia (124).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JESSE SAMUEL BOGUE whose telephone number is (571)270-1406. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00-5:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mark Laurenzi can be reached on 571-270-7878. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JESSE S BOGUE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746