Appeal No. 2003-0094 Page 5
Application No. 08/995,786
turbine 4 that is motivated by compressed air, and a compressor 2 that is driven by the
turbines and provides a first stream of air to the combustion chamber and a second
stream of air through a cooler and then to the second turbine. The air exhausted from
the second turbine flows to the space to be cooled. With regard to the requirements of
claim 21, Singleton fails to disclose or teach a fuel cell and the compressor supplying a
stream of compressed gas to an oxidant inlet of the fuel cell.
Wolfe is directed to an apparatus for powering an electric motor to propel a
vehicle and comprises “a control mechanism and a fuel cell for providing electric power
directly to the electric motor” (column 3, lines 18-20). As shown in Figure 5, which is
the embodiment to which the examiner has referred, a compressor 98 and an electric
generator 100 are mounted on a shaft that is rotated by a turbine 104. The compressor
supplies compressed air to a fuel cell 80. As explained in lines 30-46 of column 8,
“[t]he generator electric power output 102 . . . supplements the fuel cell electric power
output 96 . . . [and] is added to the fuel cell output voltage in order to produce power for
the electric motor.” In order to provide start-up and control flexibility, a combustor 125
is provided which receives the exhaust gases from the fuel cell along with additional
fuel and “completes the reaction” of partially-reacted fuel and oxidizer streams from the
fuel cell to boost the inlet temperature to the turbine (column 10, lines 39-44).
The examiner proposes to add a fuel cell to the Singleton system “upstream of
the combustor 126” because a fuel cell would provide the advantages of “lower
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