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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by McCabe (WO 92/18214).
McCabe shows a conveyor 10 for a biomass having a cylindrical shell 22 having an inlet and an outlet, a conveyor screw 24 which moves the biomass in the shell, a temperature of between 100-600 degrees Celius is disclosed on page 8, line 15 and page 12 lines 24-30 disclosed the screw is coated in nickel and/or stainless steel which is polished as is common with stainless steel.
Re claim 5, the material used is for the sole purpose of having a low adhesion tendency.
Re claim 11, inherent is that the screw conveyor could be without any modification placed into a hemihydrolysis reactor.
Re claim 12, shown is a shafted conveyor screw.
Re claim 14, the screw is configured to be warmed.
Re claim 17, see Figure 2 for a spray nozzle.
Re claim 19, the conveyor moves a biomass.
Re claim 20, the screw conveyor moves the biomass from the inlet to the outlet.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 6-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McCabe in view of Craig et al. (US 2011/0033268).
McCabe does not disclose a screw made from the claimed materials. However, disclosed by Craig et al. is the use of ceramic material for a screw conveyor. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use ceramic or other material for the screw in order to increase wear life and decrease adhesion as is extremely well know in the art of conveying.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16 and 18 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 prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES R BIDWELL whose telephone number is (571)272-6910. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8 to 4.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gene Crawford, can be reached at telephone number (571)272-6911. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES R BIDWELL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3651 08/21/2026
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