Appeal No. 2003-0172
Application 09/810,801
THE INVENTION
The appellants’ claimed invention is directed toward a
thermal steam cracking process for producing olefins. Claim 1 is
illustrative:
1. A process for producing olefins which consists of
thermally team cracking a crude oil wherein;
(A) the crude oil has pentane insolubles, ASTM D893, less
than or equal to 1.2; and
(B) the weight percent hydrogen of the crude oil is greater
than 12.5.
THE REFERENCES
Wernicke et al. (Wernicke ‘520) 4,210,520 Jul. 1, 1980
Wernicke et al. (Wernicke ‘871) 4,257,871 Mar. 24, 1981
H.J. Wernicke and W. Kreuter, “Pretreat feed for more olefins”,
Hydrocarbon Processing 137-42 (Oct. 1979) (Wernicke article).
THE REJECTION
Claims 1-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Wernicke ‘520 in view of Wernicke ‘871 and the
Wernicke article.
OPINION
We affirm the aforementioned rejection.
The appellants state that the claims stand or fall together
(brief, page 2). We therefore limit our discussion to one claim,
i.e., claim 1. See In re Ochiai, 71 F.3d 1565, 1566 n.2, 37
2
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