Appeal No. 95-0802
Application 07/814,078
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the final rejection of claims 47
through 56, all the claims pending in the application.
Claims 47 and 48 are the independent claims pending in this application and are
illustrative of the subject matter of this appeal; they read as follows:
47. A method for producing methane from coal comprising:
homogenizing termite digestive tracts to produce a homogenate;
incubating a coal substrate in an incubation medium comprising said homogenate
and methanogens, said methanogens selected from the group consisting of methanogens
of the homogenate and exogenous methanogens under anaerobic conditions sufficient to
generate methane; and
recovering methane from said incubation medium.
48. A method for producing methane from coal comprising:
homogenizing termite digestive tracts to produce a homogenate;
culturing said homogenate in bacterial enrichment medium to produce
homogenate-derived microflora;
incubating a coal substrate in an incubation medium containing said homogenate-
derived microflora under conditions sufficient to generate methane; and
recovering methane from said incubation medium.
The references relied upon by the examiner are:
Johnson 3,640,846 Feb. 8, 1972
Condensed Chemical Dictionary, (8th ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1974)
Lee et al. (Lee 1971), ed. "Termites and Soils," Academic Press, pp. 128-45 (1971)
French et al. (French), "Lignin Degradation in the Termites Coptotermes lacteus and
Nasutitermes exitiosus," Mater. Org., (Berl.), Vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 281-88 (1975)
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