Appeal No. 95-3931
Application 08/163,086
We are in agreement with the examiner’s ultimate conclusion of obviousness, but for different
reasons. According to appellants, it is the object of their invention to “develop a process which starts from
inexpensive raw materials and which produces a high yield of the desired alcohols by a simple route” and
which produces straight chain alcohols while minimizing the formation of isomers (specification: p. 3).
Mertzweiller discloses a four step process of producing alcohols comprising (i) a Fischer-Tropsch
synthesis of a hydrocarbon product by reacting CO and H in the presence of a catalyst, (ii) fractionating
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the product to get a desired olefinic fraction for the production of desired oxygenated organic compounds,
(iii) hydroformylating the olefinic fraction with CO and H in the presence of a catalyst such as cobalt to
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form an aldehyde, and (iv) hydrogenating the aldehyde to an alcohol (col. 1, lines 1-3, 13-30; col. 2, lines
19-30; col. 3, line 68 to col. 4, line 8). The reaction conditions for the hydroformylating step are within
appellants’ claimed ranges in that the reaction is conducted at pressures in the range of about 100 to 300
bar or 10 to 30 MPa and at temperatures ranging from about 65E C to about 230E C (col. 2, lines 4-8).
Mertzweiller further discloses at col. 1, lines 31-38 that
[t]he alcohols produced by this process normally contain one more carbon atom than the
olefin used as the starting material, the position of the added hydroxyl group depending on
the positions of the double bond in the olefins. The olefins to be used as starting material
may therefore be selected as a function of the purpose for which the product alcohol is
desired.
From this teaching, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to select a C9
olefin to prepare a C alcohol.
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Bahrmann discloses a hydroformylating process wherein olefins are reacted with CO and H in the
2
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