Appeal 2007-0620
Application 10/323,626
presence of one or more annular deflection plates in the shell-and-tube heat
exchanger type fixed bed multi-tube reactor” (id. 4). The Examiner
contends Smith discloses a shell-and-tube reactor with baffles for
conducting, inter alia, exothermic reactions, wherein a series of alternating,
horizontal baffles or deflection plates 10 extend partway across the reactor
shell forming space 11 in which no catalyst tubes are present, providing “a
‘defined, virtually purely transverse flow’” of the liquid heat transfer
medium against the catalyst tubes as claimed (id. 4-5). The Examiner
concludes it would have been obvious to add Smith’s baffles to the shell-
and-tube heat exchanger type reactor of Iwanaga “to improve the heat
exchange rate” (id. 5).
With respect to claim 33, the Examiner contends Iwanaga and Smith
do not disclose multiple regions in the reactor (Answer 5). The Examiner
contends Wanka discloses the reaction tank for, inter alia, exothermic
chemical processes, can be divided by partitions into three unconnected
sections for independent temperature control, pointing to Wanka’s Fig. 6 as
“illustrating the contact tubes as rolled to attain a fluid tight fit in a partition”
(id. 5-6). The Examiner concludes it would have been obvious to divide the
reactor into multiple sections as suggested by Wanka to separately control
the temperature in each section.2
With respect to claim 1, Appellants contend there is insufficient
evidence to combined Iwanaga and Smith and then modify Iwanaga’s heat
exchanger system by incorporating Smith’s horizontal baffles (Br. 5-6).
(Amendment 2).
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013