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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4,8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by “Concept of hydrogen fired gas turbine cycle with exhaust gas recirculation: Assessment of process performance” to Mario.
As to claim 1, Mario discloses A system, comprising: a gas turbine engine (Fig 1) having an air inlet stream (into compressor), a hydrogen fuel supply (H2 fuel), and an exhaust stream (out of turbine); a heat exchanger configured to cool the exhaust stream from the gas turbine engine (cooler Fig 1); and a recirculation pathway configured to mix the cooled exhaust stream from the heat exchanger with the air inlet stream (Fig 1).
As to claim 2, Mario discloses a heat recovery unit (HRSG, Fig 1) positioned between the gas turbine engine and the heat exchanger, the heat recovery unit configured to at least: receive the exhaust stream of the gas turbine engine; cool the exhaust stream; and output the cooled exhaust stream to the heat exchanger (Fig 1).
As to claim 3, Mario discloses a cooler (Condenser, Fig 1) positioned between the heat exchanger (Cooler, Fig 1) and the air inlet stream (inlet to compressor), the cooler configured to further cool air exiting the heat exchanger before mixing the cooled exhaust stream with the air inlet stream (Fig 1; Section 4.2).
As to claim 4, Mario discloses the cooler outputs water as a by-product of cooling (Section 4.2, Condenser down arrow Fig 1).
As to claim 8, Mario discloses diluting an air inlet stream for a gas turbine engine with an exhaust gas recirculation stream (Fig 1); providing a hydrogen fuel supply to the gas turbine engine (Fig 1, hydrogen fuel); combusting the air inlet stream and hydrogen fuel supply to produce energy and an exhaust stream (Fig 1, Section 3,4.2); and cooling the exhaust stream with a heat exchanger to produce the gas recirculation stream (Cooler Fig 1).
As to claim 9, Mario discloses the hydrogen fuel supply is pure hydrogen (Fig 1 right figure).
As to claim 10, Mario discloses the hydrogen fuel supply is 50 to 100% hydrogen (Fig 1, left and right figure, Introduction).
As to claim 11, Mario discloses cooling the exhaust stream further comprises: using a heat recovery unit (Fig 1; HRSG) to remove heat from the exhaust stream of the gas turbine engine; and directing the cooled exhaust stream to the heat exchanger (Cooler Fig 1) for further cooling.
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 5-7,12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Concept of hydrogen fired gas turbine cycle with exhaust gas recirculation: Assessment of process performance” to Mario as applied to claim 3,8 above in view of US Patent 8286431 to Briesch.
As to claim 5, Mario discloses how it is difficult to reduce the temperature of the recirculated air sufficiently (Section 4.2) but does not expressly disclose a chiller configured to cool an exiting air stream from the heat exchanger to generate a cool air stream and configured to return the cool air stream to the air inlet stream.
Briesch discloses using a chiller powered by a portion of steam from a turbine HRSG to decrease intake air temperature (Briesch :30, 15,39, Fig 1).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Mario to include a chiller configured to cool an exiting air stream from the heat exchanger to generate a cool air stream and configured to return the cool air stream to the air inlet stream using the teachings of Briesch so as to assist in cooling the recirculated exhaust to a temperature where the condenser would be able to condense out the water to be removed, while also not imposing a large power requirement (as is disclosed as being unfavorable in Mario 4.2) increasing overall cooling efficiency while reducing power consumption costs.
As to claim 6, Mario discloses the chiller returns cool air to the cooler for further cooling (As disclosed in the rejection of Claim 5 above (Briesch :30, 15,39, Fig 1), the chiller would assist in cooling the air to be returned to the condenser to assist in the condenser removing water for a dry EGR cycle increasing overall efficiency while reducing power requirement costs).
As to claim 7, Mario discloses the chiller is at least one of an adsorption chiller or an absorption chiller (Briesch :30, 15,39, Fig 1 absorption chiller).
As to claim 12, Mario discloses how it is difficult to reduce the temperature of the recirculated air sufficiently (Section 4.2) but does not expressly disclose a chiller configured to cool an exiting air stream from the heat exchanger to generate a cool air stream and configured to return the cool air stream to the air inlet stream.
Briesch discloses using a chiller powered by a portion of steam from a turbine HRSG to decrease intake air temperature (Briesch :30, 15,39, Fig 1).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Mario to include a chiller configured to cool an exiting air stream from the heat exchanger to generate a cool air stream and configured to return the cool air stream to the air inlet stream using the teachings of Briesch so as to assist in cooling the recirculated exhaust to a temperature where the condenser would be able to condense out the water to be removed, while also not imposing a large power requirement (as is disclosed as being unfavorable in Mario 4.2) increasing overall cooling efficiency while reducing power consumption costs.
As to claim 13, Mario discloses how it is difficult to reduce the temperature of the recirculated air sufficiently (Section 4.2) but does not expressly disclose a “cooler” aka. chiller configured to cool an exiting air stream from the heat exchanger to generate a cool air stream and configured to return the cool air stream to the air inlet stream.
Briesch discloses using a chiller powered by a portion of steam from a turbine HRSG to decrease intake air temperature (Briesch :30, 15,39, Fig 1).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Mario to include a chiller configured to cool an exiting air stream from the heat exchanger to generate a cool air stream and configured to return the cool air stream to the air inlet stream using the teachings of Briesch so as to assist in cooling the recirculated exhaust to a temperature where the condenser would be able to condense out the water to be removed, while also not imposing a large power requirement (as is disclosed as being unfavorable in Mario 4.2) increasing overall cooling efficiency while reducing power consumption costs.
As to claim 14, Mario discloses cooling the exhaust stream further comprises: using a cooler (condenser Fig 1) to cool a second output from the heat exchanger.
Mario discloses how it is difficult to reduce the temperature of the recirculated air sufficiently (Section 4.2) but does not expressly disclose using a chiller to cool a first output from the heat exchanger and adding the first cooled output and the second cooled output to the gas recirculation stream.
Briesch discloses using a chiller powered by a portion of steam from a turbine HRSG to decrease intake air temperature (Briesch :30, 15,39, Fig 1).
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Mario to include using a chiller to cool a first output from the heat exchanger and adding the first cooled output and the second cooled output to the gas recirculation stream using the teachings of Briesch so as to assist in cooling the recirculated exhaust to a temperature where the condenser would be able to condense out the water to be removed, while also not imposing a large power requirement (as is disclosed as being unfavorable in Mario 4.2) increasing overall cooling efficiency while reducing power consumption costs
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