Appeal No. 1996-4171
Application 07/762,298
stream (specification, page 2, lines 21-25). Thereafter, the
ion exchange resin is eluted by contact with a sequestering
agent such as ammonium fluoride to release the captured heavy
metal (see the representative Equation II release reaction in
the specification at page 3, line 19), followed by the step of
regenerating the ion exchange resin for another cycle (see the
representative equation III regeneration reaction in the
specification at page 3, line 21). Significantly, as stated
above, appellant’s process advantageously selectively reduces
the concentration of heavy metal ions in a complexing agent
containing waste stream to sub-ppm levels. In contrast,
appellant emphasizes that in the prior art, there were no
known “[c]ommercial processes which will reduce the
concentration of a heavy metal such as uranium to sub-ppm
levels on a plant process scale from such solutions. Even
conventional strong acid or weak acid cation resins are not
effective if complexing anions are present above a few hundred
ppm in concentration.” See the specification at page 1, lines
29-34.
THE REJECTIONS UNDER 35 U.S.C. § 103
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