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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group III¸ claims 9 and 10, in the reply filed on June 12, 2026 is acknowledged.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Accordingly, claims 1-3 (apparatus), 4-8 (method) and 11-12 (apparatus) are withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention.
Drawings
Figures 1 and 2 should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated. See MPEP § 608.02(g). Corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Applicant’s specification discloses that:
FIG. 1 shows a typical architecture and functioning of a gas-diffusion electrode (GDE)-based CO2 electrolyzer, according to prior art (page 6, [0018]).
FIG. 2 shows a typical architecture of a distillation column comprising trays (top) and a single typical tray (bottom), according to prior art (page 6, [0019]).
Claim Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 10
line 1, please amend the word “unit” to -- plurality of CO2 electrolyzers --
This is an instance where the article should be changed to ensure proper antecedent basis for the claim terminology.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 9 and 10 are 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 9
• line 28, “the vertical axis” lacks antecedent basis.
See also claim 9, line 30.
Antecedent basis must be laid for each recited element in a claim, typically, by introducing each element with the indefinite article (“a” or “an”). See Slimfold Mfg. Co. v. Kincaid Properties, Inc., 626 F. Supp 493, 495 (N.D. Ga. 1985), aff'd, 810 F.2d 1113 (Fed. Cir. 1987) (citing P. Rosenberg, 2 Patent Law Fundamentals § 14.06 (2d. Ed. 1984)). Subsequent mention of an element is to be modified by the definite article “the”, “said” or “the said,” thereby making the latter mention(s) of the element unequivocally referable to its earlier recitation.
• lines 46-47, the phrase “such as to optimally use a single cooling system and a single set of auxiliary pumps and compressors” is indefinite.
The phrase "such as" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 9 and 10 define over the prior art of record because the prior art does not contain any language that teaches or suggests a unit for cost-efficient electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 to a high value chemical comprising a plurality of CO2 electrolyzers as presently claimed. Therefore, a person skilled in the art would not have been motivated to adopt the above conditions, and a prima facie case of obviousness cannot be established.
Pramanik et al. (Electrochemical Column Cell for Continuous Oxidative Inactivation of
Pathogens and Reductive Removal of Toxic Heavy Metals,” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2021 Jun 29), Vol. 13, No. 27, pp. 32402-32414) teach using three-layer disc-shaped PEGO-CF cathode bundles and three-layer disc-shaped RPEGO-CF anode bundles of similar dimensions. The three slices of PEGO-CF or RPEGO-CF were stacked and connected in parallel inside the column, as described earlier, to construct a packed bed EC (page 32407, right column, lines 23-27; and page 32402, abstract:
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Claim 10 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the claim objection(s) set forth in this Office action.
Claims 9 and 10 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Citations
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's
disclosure.
Yelubay et al. (“Mass Transfer Devices,” Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan S. Toraighyrov Pavlodar State University (2017), 16 pp., https://library.psu.kz/fulltext/buuk/b3294.pdf) is cited to teach that according to the interior design the columns can be distinguished as plate columns, packed columns and columns with film separation (page 8, lines 9-10 and Fig. 2.2).
Walsh et al. (“Editors’ Choice - Critical Review - The Bipolar Trickle Tower Reactor: Concept, Development and Applications,” Journal of The Electrochemical Society (2021 Feb 1), Vol. 168, No. 2, pp. 1-23) is cited to teach the bipolar trickle tower reactor concept, in which a thin film of electrolyte flows down a column past a series of identical bipolar electrode layers (page 3, Fig. 1).
Leon et al. (“Effect of Scaling-Up on the Performance and Degradation of Long-Term Operated Electrolyte Supported Solid Oxide Cell, Stack and Module in Electrolysis Mode,” Journal of Power Sources (2021 Oct 31), Vol. 510, pp. 1-11) is cited to teach a schematic drawing of the 10- and 30-cell based stack and stack housing (page 4, Fig. 1).
Nagao et al. (“Separator-Free Fuel Cell Stacks Operating in a Mixture of Hydrogen and Air,” Energy & Environmental Science (2010), Vol. 3, No. 12, pp. 1934-1940) is cited to teach conventional and separator-free cell stacks (page 1934, Scheme 1).
Horne et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0003545 A1) is cited to teach that the redox flow battery storage system includes at least one redox flow battery stack assembly including a number of layers with each layer including multiple independent cells in
cascade orientation along the reactant flow path (page 1, [0004]).
Haryu et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0060771 A1) is cited to teach as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, each high pressure water electrolysis cell 12 includes a
substantially discoidal electrolyte membrane-electrode structure 32, and an anode separator 34 and a cathode separator 36 that holds the electrolyte membrane-electrode structure 32 therebetween (page 2, [0022]).
Kojima (US Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0250687 A1) is cited to teach that each of the water electrolysis cells 14 includes a membrane electrode assembly (page 1, [0014]).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDNA WONG whose telephone number is (571) 272-1349. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 7:00 AM- 3:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Luan Van can be reached at (571) 272-8521. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/EDNA WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1795
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