Appeal No. 95-0802
Application 07/814,078
The claimed invention is directed to a method of generating methane from coal by
incubating coal with termite digestive tracts or methanogens derived from the digestive
tracts, with or without the addition of exogenous methanogens.
The prior art relied upon establishes that production of methane from lignite and
sub-bituminous coal using a microbial consortium from sewage sludge was known at the
time of the invention. Production of methane from wood using organisms present in
termite digestive tracts was also known; and finally, the organisms were known to produce
methane by degrading cellulose and lignin. The Examiner relies upon the Condensed
Chemical Dictionary (CCD) to establish that “[t]he composition of a coal such as lignite
would reasonably be expected to be similar to the wood from which it is derived with
respect to lignin and cellulose content.” The CCD defines “lignin” as the major
noncarbohydrate constituent of wood; “lignite” as a low rank coal between peat and sub-
bituminous; and “peat” as partially decayed vegetable matter.
The Examiner concludes that it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in
the art to have substituted microorganisms from termite digestive tracts for
microorganisms from sewage sludge in producing methane from coal, because of the
similarities between the prior art processes of generating methane from coal and from
wood; the similarities between coal and wood; and the recognition in the art that
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