Appeal No. 1998-1278
Application No. 08/603,186
capacity of the acid gas scrubbing processes
[employing conventional amine absorbents, such
as MEA and DEA] in all three of the above-mentioned
process categories.
We find that Sartori also teaches using a mixture of sterically
hindered amines and tertiary amines to further improve the
working capacity of the acid gas scrubbing process. See column
3, lines 58-68. According to Sartori (column 6, lines 37- 39),
the most preferred hindered amines include 2-amino-2-methyl-1-
propanol. Compare Sartori, column 6, lines 37-39 with claims 4,
7, 12 and 15. The other hindered amines specifically described
include 2-diethylamino ethanol and 2-dimethylamino ethanol.
Compare Sartori, column 9 with claims 5, 6, 9, 14 and 17. The
above-mentioned absorbents can be used together with, inter alia,
corrosion inhibitors and can be regenerated (release CO2) and
reused in an absorber. See column 10, lines 19-26, together with
columns 5 and 6.
Given these teachings, we determine that one of ordinary
skill in the art would have been led to employ the claimed
hindered amines alone or together with a tertiary amine as an
absorbent in the acid purification (carbon dioxide removal)
process described in Pearce, motivated by a reasonable
expectation of successfully improving its efficiency,
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