Appeal No. 94-4210
Application 07/932,415
venturi aspirators or eductors at the junctions of feedstock
conduit 1 with steam conduit 2 and/or air conduit 8 with flow
inlet 7 in Gross' system would have been obvious to a person
having ordinary skill in the art for more effective mixing of the
steam, fluid and/or gas mixtures introduced into either of the
reactor vessels of Gross' system. We find that persons having
ordinary skill in the art reasonably would have expected that
implementation of the venturi aspirators or eductors of Carney's
catalytic reaction system to mix steam with reactant fluid in
Gross' system would similarly improve the efficiency of Gross'
catalytic reactor system (Carney, col. 2, lines 43 to 54).
However, we agree with appellants that the examiner's
rejections of Claim 10 under 35 U.S.C. ~ 102(b) over Wertheim's
disclosure and Claim 11 under 35 U.S.C. ~ 103 in view of
Wertheim's teaching itself are untenable. Material findings of
fact by the examiner with regard to the system Wertheim describes
are clearly erroneous. The examiner clearly errs in finding that
(Examiner's Answer, page 5, ~ 6; emphasis added):
Wertheim et al disclose a system which the
examiner compares to the left reactor vessel 12, which
has a flow inlet 16 and a flow outlet 18, a first
reduction catalyst 40 near the flow inlet 16, a first
gas injector 14 upstream of said first catalyst bed, a
second reduction catalyst 94 downstream of the first
catalyst bed 40 and near the flow outlet 18, and a
second gas injector 20 between the two catalyst beds.
To the contrary, Wertheim teaches (Wertheim, col. 5, lines 39-50)
that valve 30 for steam and hydrocarbon feedstock flow inlet 14
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