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 .
Status of the Claims
The amendment filed on 03/31/2026 has been entered. Claim 1 has been amended and claims 2-7 have been canceled. Thus claim 1 is 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.
Claim 1 is 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 remains being replete with vague and indefinite languages. To name a few (note there is more to what is listed below):
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The newly added limitation adds to the unclarity of this stage, where first acetone and recycled phenol are fed to the first-stage reactor (102), then the same streams enter the first-stage cooler (101), followed to again the first stage reactor (102). What is the purpose of the same streams that are already fed to (102) and enter the cooler (101) are again fed to (102)?
It is not understood the function of the second stage reactor (112) as only acetone is being fed to this reactor and thus is unclear how a condensation reaction liquid is obtained from (112) that is fed to a first-stage addict crystallization unit (200).
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There is an insufficient antecedent basis for limitation “the mother solution” from (400) entering (600), when prior (400) unit recites “introducing the other part of the separated liquid into …(600)”, which has no mention of mother solution.
What is the source of the “aqueous phenol” and “raw phenol” and how is it connected to unit (600)?
What is the light component tower (117) and what is its function? How is related/connected to unit 600?
There is a lot of disconnect on what is taking place in unit 600, specifically after undergoing cracking and rearrangement to obtain bisphenol A. There is no flow in each step after undergoing cracking and rearrangement to obtain bisphenol A. The terms used in prior units do not necessarily follow the same terms in unit 600.
Allowable Subject Matter
The subject matter of claim 1 is free of prior art. The closest prior art references, Patent application publication numbers US20160159716A1 (US’716) and US20170240496A1 (US’496), have been cited in PTO-892 12/31/2025.
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. The skilled would not be motivated to modify the teachings of the references and would not have a reasonable expectation of success in arriving at the instantly claimed method.
In view of the foregoing the instantly claimed process is deemed novel and unobvious over the closest prior art references.
Conclusion
Claim 1 is rejected.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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.
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
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