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.
Claims 1-3 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kubo et al. (“Kubo”; JP 2016-211515, English translation attached), in view of Bove et al. (“Bove”; US 2013/0061591).
Regarding claim 1: Kubo discloses a compressed air energy storage apparatus (Fig. 2) comprising:
a compressor (6) that is driven by an electric motor (24) and compresses air;
a first heat exchanger (14) that heats a heat storage medium by way of a heat exchange with compressed air compressed by the compressor;
a pressure storage tank (8) that stores compressed air having exchanged heat in the first heat exchanger;
an expander (10) driven by the compressed air stored in the pressure storage tank;
an electric generator (22) driven by the expander;
a second heat exchanger (18) for heating compressed air flowing into the expander, by way of a heat exchange with a heat storage medium heated by the first heat exchanger.
Kubo does not explicitly disclose a heat pump device that absorbs heat from a heat storage medium having exchanged heat in the second heat exchanger and radiates heat into compressed air that drives the expander.
However, Bove discloses a heat pump device (61, Fig. 3) that absorbs heat from a heat storage medium having exchanged heat in the second heat exchanger (akin to 53) and radiates heat into compressed air that drives the expander (58, via 60, paragraph 49).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the compressed air storage system of Kubo to include the heat pump of Bove in order to increase the temperature of the air (paragraph 0049).
Regarding claim 2: Kubo modified by Bove disclose the heat pump device, Bove further discloses the heat pump device absorbs heat from the heat storage medium having exchanged heat in the second heat exchanger and radiates heat into the heat storage medium supplied to the second heat exchanger (as 61 feeds the medium to 60, which then supplies to 53).
Regarding claim 3: Kubo modified by Bove disclose the heat pump device, Bove further discloses the heat pump device includes a heat absorber and a heat radiator through which a refrigerant circulates (as these are required in heat pumps), the heat absorber absorbs heat from the heat storage medium having exchanged heat in the second heat exchanger (inherent as the heat from 53 is provided to the heat pump), and the heat radiator radiates heat energy absorbed by the heat absorber into the compressed air heated by the second heat exchanger (per standard heat pump construction).
Regarding claim 10: Kubo discloses wherein the heat storage medium is pressurized water (last full paragraph of page 3 of the translation).
Regarding claim 11: Kubo discloses a compressed air energy storage apparatus that stores compressed air and compression heat obtained by compressing air with a compressor (6, Fig. 2), heats the compressed air by way of a heat exchange, in a heat exchanger (14), between the compressed air and a heat storage medium that has absorbed the compression heat, and drives an expander (10) with compressed air having heated to generate electric power (via 22), Kubo does not explicitly disclose a heat pump device comprising: an evaporator for absorbing heat from a heat storage medium having exchanged heat in the heat exchanger; and a heat radiator for radiating heat into the heat storage medium flowing into the heat exchanger.
However, Bove discloses a heat pump device (61, Fig. 3) used in a compressed air energy storage apparatus (from air in 62), the heat pump device comprising:
an evaporator (inherent in heat pump design) for absorbing heat from a heat storage medium having exchanged heat in the heat exchanger (53); and
a heat radiator for radiating heat into the heat storage medium flowing into the heat exchanger (inherent in heat pump design).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the compressed air storage system of Kubo to include the heat pump of Bove in order to increase the temperature of the air (paragraph 0049).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kubo and Bove as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Moreau (US 2012/0125029).
Regarding claim 9: Kubo modified by Bove disclose the heat pump, but do not explicitly disclose the heat pump device is a heat pump device adopting a steam compression cycle that uses a refrigerant.
However, Moreau discloses the heat pump device is a heat pump device adopting a steam compression cycle that uses a refrigerant (paragraph 0082).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the heat pump to use the steam compression cycle in order to advantageously design the head pump to function efficiently.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-8 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter.
The prior art of record, alone or in combination does not explicitly teach, suggest, or render obvious, at least to the skilled artisan the apparatus of claim 4, specifically comprising:
the second heat exchanger includes a three-fluid heat exchanger into which the heat storage medium heated by the first heat exchanger, the refrigerant flowing out of the heat radiator, and the compressed air supplied to the expander flow, in the context of the other components in the claim.
The prior art of record, alone or in combination does not explicitly teach, suggest, or render obvious, at least to the skilled artisan the apparatus of claim 5, specifically comprising:
the compressed air energy storage apparatus includes a controller that drives the expander with the compressed air stored in the auxiliary pressure storage tank and starts to cause the heat storage medium heated by the first heat exchanger to flow into the second heat exchanger, and thereafter, the controller drives the expander with the compressed air stored in the main pressure storage tank, in the context of the other components in the claim.
Claims 6-8 are allowable due to their dependency on claim 5.
Conclusion
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/SEAN GUGGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
