Appeal No. 96-1225
Application 08/107,696
appellant’s claim 3 and 22 would have been prima facie obvious
to one of ordinary skill in the art over JP ‘189.
As for claims 6 and 18, JP ‘189 discloses a system in
Fig. 4 which can be used for either batch or continuous
cleaning (page 14, lines 18-34) and which includes a high
pressure cleaning vessel (12) having an exhaust line (26)
connected to a separator (28) (page 14, lines 20-21; page 15,
lines 14-17). In the continuous mode, dense fluid is
introduced into the cleaning vessel (12) at the same rate that
exhaust dense phase gas is continuously removed through the
exhaust line (26) in order to maintain the pressure in the
cleaning vessel (12) at or above the critical pressure (page
15, lines 23-26). JP ‘189 does not discuss, with respect to
the continuous mode, separating contaminants from the exhaust
dense phase gas and recycling the dense phase gas. However,
regarding the batch mode, JP ‘189 states (page 15, lines 14-
17) that "[t]he exhaust line may be connected to a separator
28 which removes the entrained contaminants from the exhaust
gas thereby allowing recycling of the dense phase gas." This
teaching, combined with the teaching that contaminated dense
12
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