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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alshehri. (US 11,713,676) in view of Charlton et al. (US 4,968,630, hereafter Charlton)
With respect to claim 1, Alshehri teaches a system for downhole sensing, comprising: a plurality of sensor units disposed within a first subsurface reservoir, each sensor unit comprising a housing in which a sensor, a wireless communication unit, and a microprocessor connected with the sensor are disposed; and a computing unit located outside the first subsurface reservoir, the computing unit in wireless communication with the plurality of sensor units, wherein each sensor unit is configured to: collect a sample of reservoir brine from the first subsurface reservoir; determine a local concentration value in the sample; and transmit the local concentration value to the computing unit, and wherein the computing unit is configured to estimate a total concentration value in the first subsurface reservoir from the local concentration values. (col. 6, lines 13-30, Fig. 1)
Alshehri does not explicitly teach the sensors include ionophore based sensor units to investigate a concentration of ionic lithium.
Charlton teaches it is known to use ionophore based sensor units to determine the concentration of lithium in a downhole environment. (col. 3, lines 16-47)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the sensor units of Alshehri to sense lithium, as taught by Charlton, in order to provide a lithium concentration measurement to an end user.
With respect to claim 2, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches each ionophore-based sensor unit is configured to wirelessly communicate with one or more other ionophore-based sensor units.
With respect to claim 3, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches for each ionophore-based sensor, the wireless communication unit is configured to transmit the local concentration value to the computing unit.
With respect to claim 4, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches at least one base station in wireless communication with the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units, wherein the at least one base station is located in the first subsurface reservoir.
With respect to claim 5, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches for each ionophore-based sensor, the wireless communication unit is configured to transmit the local concentration value to the at least one base station.
With respect to claim 6, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches the at least one base station is disposed in an injection well, a producing well, or both an injection well and a producing well.
With respect to claim 7, although Ashehri, as modified by Charlton, does not explicitly teach the lithium ionophore is selected from the group consisting of a dibenzo-16-crown-5 ether derivative, a bis(crown ether)s derivative and combinations thereof, these are known in the art and the choice of ionophore would be obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art based on the specifics of the particular environment to be tested.
With respect to claims 8-9, although Ashehri, as modified by Charlton, does not explicitly teach each ionophore-based sensor unit comprises a propulsion unit powered by a motor disposed within the housing and configured to propel the ionophore-based sensor unit,
the propulsion unit comprises at least one of a propeller, one or more fins, or a shape-memory alloy based thruster, sensor units having propulsion are known and therefore It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include propulsion in order to control the location of the sensor units.
With respect to claim 10, Ashehri, as modified by Charlton, teaches each ionophore-based sensor unit comprises a position sensor configured to determine a position of the ionophore-based sensor unit within the first subsurface reservoir.
With respect to claim 11, Alshehri teaches a method for downhole sensing, comprising: deploying a plurality of sensor units into a first subsurface reservoir; establishing wireless communication between the plurality of sensor units and a computing unit; for each sensor unit: collecting a sample of reservoir brine from the first subsurface reservoir; determining a local concentration value in the sample; and transmitting the local concentration value to the computing unit; determining, by the computing unit, a total concentration value from the local concentration values; and in response to the total concentration value exceeding a predetermined threshold, initiating an operation
Alshehri does not explicitly teach the sensors include ionophore based sensor units to investigate a concentration of ionic lithium.
Charlton teaches it is known to use ionophore based sensor units to determine the concentration of lithium in a downhole environment. (col. 3, lines 16-47)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the sensor units of Alshehri to sense lithium, as taught by Charlton, in order to provide a lithium concentration measurement to an end user and to use this information to control lithium extraction operations.
With respect to claim 12, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches deploying the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units comprises pumping a liquid comprising the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units into the first subsurface reservoir.
With respect to claim 13, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches transmitting, to one or more base stations, the local concentration values obtained using the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units; receiving, at the one or more base stations, the local concentration values obtained using the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units; and transmitting the local concentration values from the one or more base stations to the computing unit, wherein the computing is located outside the first subsurface reservoir, and wherein the computing unit is wirelessly connected to the one or more base stations.
With respect to claim 14, although Ashehri, as modified by Charlton, does not explicitly teach propelling at least one ionophore-based sensor unit within the first subsurface reservoir via a propulsion unit connected with the at least one ionophore-based sensor unit, sensor units having propulsion are known and therefore It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include propulsion in order to control the location of the sensor units.
With respect to claim 15, Alshehri, as modified by Charlton teaches determining a position for each of the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units within the first subsurface reservoir; and mapping the local concentration values obtained from the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units to the positions within the first subsurface reservoir.
With respect to claim 16, although Ashehri, as modified by Charlton, does not explicitly teach predicting, using a machine learning algorithm, lithium concentration data for a second subsurface reservoir based on the local concentration values obtained from the plurality of ionophore-based sensor units, it Is commonly known to use machine learning to evaluate data and therefore this would have been an obvious function in order to better evaluate the sensor results.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 4,956,062; US 2009/0218237; and US 2025/0044476 each teach an invention having similarities to the claimed subject matter.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jill E Culler whose telephone number is (571)272-2159. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00.
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/JILL E CULLER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
