Appeal No. 1997-2936
Application No. 08/360,335
Page 4
anionic face of the bipolar membrane. The examiner refers to
figure 3 and to column 8, lines 29-66, in this regard. (answer,
page 3).
The examiner further states that Mani discloses that at
least a fraction of the diluted salt from the salt compartment is
introduced into the acid compartment, and refers to figure 3, and
that therefore, the salt introduced to the salt compartment would
be identical to the salt introduced to the acid compartment.
(answer, page 3).
Appellants provide arguments on pages 5-11 of their brief,
and in their reply brief. In particular, appellants state that
the three compartment cell disclosed in Mani comprises a bipolar
membrane, an anionic membrane, and a cationic membrane.
Appellants state that these three membranes form (1) a salt
compartment between the anionic and the cationic membranes, (2)
an acid compartment between the anionic membrane and the cationic
side of the bipolar membrane, and (3) a base compartment between
the cationic membrane and the anionic side of the bipolar
membrane. Appellants state that in this three compartment cell,
the salt solution is fed into the salt compartment of the cell 1
(between the anionic and the cationic membrane), a base stream is
recovered from the base compartment 3 (between the cationic
membrane and the anionic side of the bipolar membrane), and an
acid strain is recovered from the acid compartment 2 (between the
anionic membrane and the cationic side of the bipolar membrane).
Appellants refer to column 2, line 60 to column 3, line 10, and
column 6, lines 14 to 22 of Mani. (brief, pages 5-6).
Upon our review of Mani, we find that the three compartment
water splitter represented in Mani’s figure 2 is different from
the three compartment water splitter illustrated in Mani’s figure
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007