Appeal No. 1996-3826
Application 08/222,477
weight of water, and alcohol if needed,” along with a nonionic surfactant, this reference would have
reasonably suggested to one of ordinary skill in this art that such fuels can contain a lesser amount of
water, including the range of 30-70%. Dubin also teaches that the aqueous fuels thereof can contain the
same type stabilizers (e.g., col. 6, line 54, to col. 7, line 3) as those of Kawaai in amounts specified in
claim 2, and, as we found above (see supra page 8), the light fuel oils of Dubin (e.g., col. 3, line 45, to
col. 4, line 4) would have reasonably been expected by one of ordinary skill in this art to be used in the
stable, oil-in-water type emulsified fuels of Kawaai.
While Kawaai is silent with respect to a lubricity enhancer, Dubin would have reasonably
suggested to one of ordinary skill in this art that the stable, oil-in-water type emulsified fuel of Kawaai,
which can contain light fuel oil, can reasonably be expected to be used in “combustion turbine” engines
and that a lubricity enhancer added to such aqueous fuels in amounts specified in claim 2 would
reasonably be expected to avoid the mechanical problems known in the art (e.g., col. 3, lines 11-24,
col. 7, lines 15-23, and col. 8, lines 28-35). We recognize that Dubin does not disclose the use of
alcohol in the fuels thereof. However, we find that Kawaai would have reasonably suggested to one of
ordinary skill in this art that alcohol can be used in stable oil-in-water type emulsified fuels having a
viscosity that can be spray combusted and thus one of ordinary skill in this art would have reasonably
expected that such an aqueous fuel can be injected into the combustion chamber of “combustion
turbine” engines in the same manner as the stable oil-in-water type emulsified fuels of Dubin (e.g., col. 1,
lines 64-66. col. 3, lines 35-37, and col. 4, line 66, to col. 5, line 6 ).
Accordingly, we find that, prima facie, the combined teachings of Kawaai and Dubin would
have reasonably suggested to one of ordinary skill in this art that the stable oil-in-water type emulsified
fuels of Kawaai can be modified by the use of a lubricity enhancer and an alkyphenolethoxylate as the
nonionic surfactant in the reasonable expectation of obtaining a fuel that can be spray combusted. Thus,
prima facie, one of ordinary skill in this art following the combined teachings of Kawaai and Dubin
would have reasonably arrived at the claimed aqueous fuels encompassed by claims 2 and 6, in the
absence of any unobvious properties. See In re Vaeck, 947 F.2d 488, 493, 20 USPQ2d 1438, 1442
(Fed. Cir. 1991) (“Both the suggestion and the reasonable expectation of success must be founded in
the prior art, not in the applicant’s disclosure.”); In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871,
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