Appeal No. 96-2339
Application 08/299,391
founded. Accordingly, we do not sustain this rejection.
Kruse discloses a method for the continuous preparation
of MTBE by reacting tertiary butyl alcohol and methanol, and
for the continuous purification of the MTBE product (col. 1,
lines 9-15; col. 4, lines 32-35). In Kruse’s method,
isobutylene recycle fraction 83, isobutylene conversion
fraction 42, fifth distillation fraction 72, and recycle
fraction 120 are combined and fed to methanol extraction zone
50 (figure 1). In the methanol extraction zone, methanol is
extracted from the feed to provide an extract (64) which
includes methanol and water, and a raffinate (60) which
includes MTBE and isobutylene (col. 14, lines 22-27). 2
Appellants’ claimed embodiment, shown in their figure 2,
differs from Kruse’s method in that appellants’ isobutylene
fraction (82) is fed to the extraction zone (50) at about 1 to
3 theoretical plates below the point of introduction of the
MTBE-containing feed stream (46). Appellants argue that the
2 In Kruse, the names given to fractions 60 and 64 are
reversed. Fraction 60 should be called the raffinate and
fraction 64 should be called the extract.
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007