Appeal No. 1996-2215
Application No. 08/101,093
the steps of controlling the partial pressure of carbon
dioxide released from fermenting bacteria by (1) venting some
of the exhaust gas, (2) releasing some of the vented exhaust
gas to the atmosphere, (3) passing the remaining vented
exhaust gas through a carbon dioxide adsorption remover to
remove carbon dioxide by adsorption, and (4) returning the
exhaust gas of step (3) back to the culture medium. Shimizu,
page 3, lines 18-24; page 7, lines 11-26; page 10, lines 1-3;
page 10, line 23, through page 11, line 3; and Fig. 4.
4. Shimizu does not describe the recited steps of
(1) nonadsorbently controlling the partial pressure of carbon
dioxide, or (2) mixing the exhaust gas with oxygen before
introducing the exhaust gas back to the culture medium.
5. In setting forth the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103,
the examiner states that “the Shimizu reference is cited to
show an analogous culturing technique wherein the exhaust gas
is returned to the system after removing excess carbon
dioxide. Even though the reference envisions adsorption of
the carbon dioxide rather than its partial release out of the
system . . . the effect of decreasing the amount of carbon
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