Appeal No. 2002-1530 Page 5
Application No. 09/138,217
alkylation. The Examiner further relies upon the statement in Innes that “[w]hen conducting
either alkylation or transalkylation, various types of reactors can be used” (Innes at col. 5, ll. 50-
52). However, this statement simply conveys that various reactors such as batch reactors, fixed
bed reactors or moving bed reactors with single or multiple beds can be used in either alkylation
or transalkylation, it does not enlarge the later teaching of interstage addition in alkylation to a
teaching encompassing transalkylation. This is especially evident from the later discussion in
Innes which focuses on transalkylation (Innes at col. 6, ll. 49-65). When Innes discusses using a
separate transalkylator to perform the step of transalkylating, Innes states that it is preferred to
blend the bottoms from the distillation of monoalkylated product with the aromatic feed (Innes at
col. 6, ll. 53-57). Such blending is what is taught by Smith (Smith at col. 2, ll. 60-62; col. 9, ll.
2-8; shown at Figs. 1 and 2 at 34 and 48) and Innes describes no other method of adding the
feedstocks to the transalkylator. Innes as well as Smith suggests using a transalkylator with one
inlet.
As Smith and Innes only provide evidence that it was known to add benzene to the poly
substituted benzene and provide one inlet into the transalkylator, there is no reason, suggestion,
or motivation, based upon evidence found within the prior art, for modifying the apparatus of
Smith to include a plurality of poly substituted benzene inlets disposed as claimed and with
valves and a header. While Gilmore and Cosyns provide evidence that such structures were
known and used in other processes, they do not provide any reason for using these structures in
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