Appeal 2007-0492
Application 10/810,960
1 According to Appellants, an aspect of their invention is the use of an "oxygen-
2 enrichment assembly" — in a particularly preferred embodiment, an oxygen permeable
3 membrane — to provide a stream of oxygen-enriched gas to the cathode region of the
4 fuel cell. (Id. at 13–14.) The oxygen-enrichment assembly produces, as a byproduct, a
5 second stream of gas that is depleted in oxygen. (Id. at 14, ll. 11-15.)
6 According to Appellants, conventional sources of hydrogen for fuel cells include
7 carbon-containing liquids and water, which are conventionally converted to hydrogen in a
8 "fuel processor" that can be part of the overall fuel cell system. (Specification at 12.)
9 Appellants further present, as an aspect of their invention, the use of the byproduct
10 low-oxygen stream to "pressurize" the liquid fuel. (Id. at 14, ll. 16ff; see also
11 independent claim 61 and dependent claims 45 and 48.)
12 In this appeal, Appellants have challenged the adequacy of the Examiner's
13 rejection of claimed subject matter based on these two features — the incorporation of an
14 oxygen enrichment assembly (all claims), in particular, an oxygen-selective membrane
15 (independent claims 1 and 27), and the use of the low-oxygen stream from that assembly
16 to pressurize liquid fuel (dependent claims 45 and 48, and independent claim 61).
17 Claims 1 and 61 are representative.
18 Claim 1 reads:
19 A fuel cell system, comprising:
20 [a] a fuel processing assembly adapted to produce a product hydrogen
21 stream containing at least substantially pure hydrogen gas from at least
22 one feed stream that comprises at least a carbon-containing feedstock;
23 [b] an air delivery system adapted to receive an air stream having a
24 concentration of oxygen gas and to produce therefrom an oxygen-enriched
-3-
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