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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 10/30/2025 has been entered.
Status of the Claims
The amendment filed on 07/11/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-7 have been amended and are currently pending and under examination.
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 1-7 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.
Claim 1 is replete throughout with indefinite languages. To name a few (note there is more to what is listed below):
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The limitations “a material from a first stage circulating pump” and “a mixture entering a first stage cooler (101)” are unclear because the nature of these is unknown. What components are encompassed in these?
The limitation “unreacted raw material mixture” is not clear as one would not understand the connection of this limitation with the earlier recitation of the reaction liquid from which part of water is removed.
The limitation “simple separating a product from unreacted phenol acetone from the second-stage reactor (112)” is indefinite. Firstly, it is replete with idiomatic error as it is not clear if this separation is being conducted on the reaction liquid reaction liquid from which water has been removed (see the step prior to the limitation).
The limitation “feeding a reaction liquid into a first stage adduct from a second stage reactor (112)” is vague as the source and scope of this reaction liquid are not clear. It is noted that prior to the recitation of this limitation, the claim indicates simple separating part of water is removed from the remaining reaction liquid and there is another step of “simple separating a product from unreacted phenol acetone”. Are these two rection liquids the same or different? A skilled artisan would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of this limitation. Furthermore, “second stage reactor (112)” in the limitation is preceded by “a” and it is not clear whether this second reactor is different from the second reactor (112) in the prior recitation.
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The limitation “reaction concentrated solution” is not definite as it is unclear whether the reaction concentrated solution is the same as the reaction liquid recited in the prior step and indicated as being fed into a first stage adduct crystallization unit (200#)”.
Claims 2-7 are also indefinite for their dependency on claim 1 and for presenting indefinite languages.
PLEASE NOTE: When formulating a process claim with multiple steps, all the terms used in each step have to be consistent to be in a clear format. An example is shown as follows:
A process for synthesizing “A”, the process comprising:
step (1) feeding “S1” and “S2” in a reactor “R1”;
step (2) reacting “S1” and “S2” in the reactor “R1” to obtain a reaction liquid comprising “A” and “B”;
step (3) separating the reaction liquid by a separation method “X” to obtain a stream comprising “A” and a stream comprising “B”; and
step (3) separating the stream comprising “A” by a separation method “Y” to obtain “A”.
As can be noted in the above example:
all the steps are presented in an active format;
all the terms used from one step to the next one are consistent;
all the elements are clear of what they encompass (e.g. a reaction liquid comprising “A” and “B”)
if it is an element or a specific process that has been recited for the first time, it is NOT preceded by the definite article “the”;
if it is an element or a specific process with a prior recitation, it is preceded by the definite article “the”.
The claim is clear and the scope is easy to understand in each step.
The Applicant is thus encouraged to amend all the claims to follow what is suggested above.
The Applicant is also reminded to obviate all the idiomatic errors presented in the claims. To name a few (one is indicated above):
“the separated bisphenol A performing adduct crystallization and solid-liquid separation” (claim 1, step of recycling unit (400#)).
The examiner also maintains that the limitation “a system” (claim 1, step of recycling unit (500#)) is as it is not clear what it encompasses. Does it refer to the system encompasses by the solvent recycling unit (500#) or the entirety of the system encompassed by claim 1, i.e. 100#, 200#, 300#, 400#, 500#, and 600#. If the latter, Applicant is advised to recite “a system” in the preamble of claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
The subject matter of claims 1-7 is free of prior art. The closest prior art references are Patent application publication numbers US20160159716A1 (US’716) and US20170240496A1 (US’496).
US’716 teaches a method for preparing bisphenol A using an apparatus that includes:
A reaction unit 10, a reaction product separation unit 20, and a bisphenol A purification unit 30. For example, the reaction unit 10 may include one or more of the group consisting of a feed 1, a main reactor 11, a recovery reactor 12, a reaction product stream 13, and a recovered reaction product stream 14. Further, the reaction product separation unit 20 may include one or more of the group consisting of a dehydrator 21, a co-catalyst processor 22, a flash reactor 23, a reactor reflux stream 28, and a bisphenol A production stream 29. Furthermore, the bisphenol A purification unit 30 may include one or more of the group consisting of a first crystallizer 31, a first solid-liquid separator 32, a second crystallizer 33, a second solid-liquid separator 34, a primary mother liquid stream 35, a primary bisphenol A purification stream 36, a secondary mother liquid stream 37, and a secondary bisphenol A purification stream 38. An exemplary preparing apparatus may include: a main reactor 11 that discharges a reaction product of a reaction between phenol and acetone through a reaction product stream 13; a flash reactor 23 that separates the reaction product stream 13 into a bisphenol A concentration stream 27 and a phenol concentration stream 24; a bisphenol A purification unit 30 that separates the bisphenol A concentration stream 27 into a bisphenol A purification stream 38 and a mother liquid stream 35 and discharges the separated mother liquid stream to the main reactor 11; and a bypass line 15 that introduces at least some of the separated mother liquid stream 35 into the flash reactor 23. In an example, the preparing apparatus may further include a recovery reactor 12 that discharges a recovered reaction product, which is obtained by additionally reacting the mother liquid stream 35 separated in the bisphenol A purification unit 30, to the main reactor 11 through the recovered reaction product stream 14. In this case, the bypass line 15 may be positioned between the recovery reactor 12 and the main reactor 11.
A feed 1 including acetone and phenol may be introduced into the main reactor 11, and thus a specific ratio of phenol to acetone to be described later can be adjusted. Further, the reaction product stream 13 passing through the main reactor 11 may be a mixture preferentially including bisphenol A and water in addition to unreacted phenol and acetone. In the present invention, at least some of the mother liquid stream 35 separated in the bisphenol A purification unit 30 is introduced into the flash reactor 23 through the bypass line 15, and thus the reaction efficiency of the main reactor 11 can be improved. If all of the mother liquid stream is discharged to the main reactor, acetone additionally needed for the main reactor 11 may be supplied in consideration of the phenol content in the mother liquid. However, in this case, since the mother liquid includes bisphenol A, a conversion rate of bisphenol A in the main reactor 11 decreases. That is, since the mother liquid includes a large amount of bisphenol A, it is disadvantageous to introduce bisphenol A into the main reactor 11 that produces bisphenol A in terms of the reaction efficiency. Therefore, by introducing the mother liquid into the flash reactor 23 through the bypass line 15, it is possible to increase the reaction efficiency of the entire reactor.
US’496 also teaches a method for producing bisphenol A using bisphenol production facility illustrated by Fig. 2, in which a reactor feed stream 8 can be directed to the BPA reactor 10 to form BPA stream 12. Reactor feed stream 8 can comprise phenol, acetone, and optionally a promoter. The catalyst can be a fixed bed reactor comprising a catalyst. The catalyst can comprise an ion exchange resin (such as a tert-amine divinylbenzene/styrene ion exchange copolymer). The catalyst can comprise a strong acid catalyst (such as hydrochloric acid), a sulfonic resin and a sulfur containing promoter (such as a mercaptan promoter (such as methyl mercaptan, ethyl mercaptan, 2,2-bis(methylthio)propane, mercaptocarboxylic acid, and 3-mercaptopropionic acid), as well as combinations comprising at least one of the foregoing. The phenol and acetone can be present in a molar ratio of 2:1 to 5:1. Reactor feed stream 8 can comprise 75 to 95 wt % phenol and 3 to 25 wt % acetone. The phenol and acetone can be combined in a formulation tank located upstream of BPA reactor 10. BPA stream 12 can be removed from BPA reactor 10. BPA stream 12 can comprise 10 to 50 wt % of bisphenol A.
BPA stream 12 can be directed to crystallization unit 20 to form BPA crystals comprising, for example, one or both of crystalline BPA and an adduct of BPA and phenol. It is noted that “adduct” as used herein refers to the physical association of BPA and phenol (e.g., one molecule of BPA and one molecule of phenol can crystallize together to form a 1:1 molar ratio of BPA/phenol adduct). The crystallization can occur via cooling of the BPA stream. Water can be added to the crystallization unit 20 to increase the rate of the crystallization. The water can be present in BPA stream 12 in an amount of less than or equal to 3 wt %, specifically, 0.1 to 3 wt %. The crystals can be separated by removing the solid portion from the crystallization unit comprising the crystals, for example, via filtration, to form crystallized stream 22.
Crystallized stream 22 can be directed to melting unit 30. The melting unit 30 can melt the crystals, for example, by heating the crystals at a temperature greater than or equal to the crystallization temperature. An additional amount of phenol can be added to the crystallized stream 22 to facilitate the melting of the crystals at a lower temperature. The temperature of the melting unit 30 can be 70 to 100° C., specifically, 75 to 90° C. The crystals can be melted in melting unit 30 to form a melt comprising bisphenol A and phenol. When the melt comprises sulfur, then a base (such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide) can be added to the melt to form a melt stream with a reduced sulfur content. Melted stream 32 can be directed to filter 40 to form a bisphenol A stream (not shown) and filtered stream 42 comprising 60 to 90 wt % phenol, 5 to 20 wt % bisphenol A, and 5 to 20 wt % water. Filter 40 can comprise a rotary vacuum filter. The bisphenol A stream can be further purified to produce a product bisphenol A. The product bisphenol A can be solidified, for example, in a flaking unit, not shown in FIG. 2.
However, none of the closest prior art references, alone or in combination, teach or suggest the production process for synthesizing bisphenol A by a resin method as instantly claimed.
In view of the foregoing the instantly claimed process is deemed novel and unobvious over the closest prior art references.
Conclusion
Claims 1-7 are rejected and no claims are allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEDHANIT W BAHTA whose telephone number is (571)270-7658. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Scarlett Goon can be reached at 571-270-5241. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MEDHANIT W BAHTA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1692