Appeal No. 2002-2329 Page 3
Application No. 09/647,815
to the Brief (Paper No. 15) and Reply Brief (Paper No. 17) for the appellant's arguments
thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
the appellant's specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. As a consequence
of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
The appellant explains in the specification that a disadvantage of modern
catalytic converters is that their NOx storage capacity decreases over time as a result of
sulfur deposits. The appellant’s invention is directed to a process for operating an
internal combustion engine in such a manner as to remove SOx from a conventional
NOx storage catalytic converter. The invention is expressed in claim 1 in the following
manner:
1. A method of operating an internal combustion engine having a NOx
storage catalytic converter, including:
e) setting the requirement of desulfurization of the Nox
storage catalytic converter;
f) operating the internal combustion engine at 81<1 and
injecting secondary air upstream from the NOx storage
catalytic converter during a first time period;
g) operating the internal combustion engine at 82<1, where
82 is larger than 81, and discontinuing the injection of
secondary air during a second time period following the first
time period; and
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