Appeal No. 1997-0722
Application 08/364,589
except for the claimed requirement regarding the use of the
specific vinylamine polymer for treating the food processing
waste water. In this regard, Miller discloses a process for
the purification of food processing waste water and the
recovery of proteinaceous materials, fats and oils therefrom
by treatment of the waste water with a combination of
coagulants and flocculants including synthetic polymers from
the polyacrylamide family. See Miller at column 1, lines 15-
22 and column 4, lines 50-65. With respect to the appellants'
claimed requirement regarding the use of a vinylamine polymer,
the examiner found that Nowak discloses that it was known in
the art of liquid purification to utilize a polyvinylamine
polymer as recited in appellants' claims, as a flocculant for
suspensions of organic materials. Particularly see Nowak at
column 1, lines 63-67. Based on these disclosures, the
examiner concluded that it would have been obvious to a person
of ordinary skill in this art to modify Miller's method by
adding Nowak's polyvinylamine flocculant to the food
processing waste water (i.e., an aqueous organic material
containing stream) in the Miller process to aid in
flocculating suspended solids therein.
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