Appeal No. 1997-1536
Application 08/342,817
carbonaceous char having significant catalytic properties
wherein the char is produced directly from an inexpensive and
abundant nitrogen-poor feedstock such as bituminous coal
(column 2, lines 34 through 49). The feedstock material is
pulverized and mixed, if necessary, with a binder material and
then extensively oxidized with an inexpensive abundant oxidant
such as air at temperatures less than 700EC until additional
gains in catalytic activity of the final product are no longer
evident (column 2, lines 50 through 65). The char is then
exposed to an inexpensive abundant non-toxic nitrogen-
containing compound such as urea during the initial
calcination by heating the char to between 850EC and 950EC in
the presence of the nitrogen-containing compound (column 2,
line 66 through column 3, line 16). The nitrogen-treated char
is then activated at temperatures above 700EC in steam and/or
carbon dioxide (column 3, lines 17 through 31).
THE REJECTION UNDER 35 U.S.C. § 112
It is the examiner's position, as stated at page 3 of his
Answer, that the claim terminology in claim 5 which defines
the nitrogen-containing compound of claim 1 in terms of its
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