Appeal No. 2003-0172
Application 09/810,801
Consequently, when we give the term “crude oil” in the
appellants’ claim 1 its broadest reasonable interpretation in
view of the specification, we interpret it as including oils that
are derived by separation from oil taken from oil fields, but
excluding oils that have been deasphalted or hydrotreated.
Wernicke ‘520 discloses a two stage process for producing
olefins, wherein in the first stage heavy petroleum fractions are
hydrogenated in the presence of hydrogen and a hydrogenation
catalyst, and in the second stage the hydrogenated fractions are
thermally cracked in the presence of steam (abstract).
Wernicke ‘871 discloses a vacuum residue thermal cracking
process wherein vacuum residue is subjected to separation to
remove asphalt components therefrom, the deasphalted vacuum
residue is blended with a vacuum gas oil or substantial
equivalent thereof, the blend is hydrogenated, and the resultant
hydrogenate is at least partially thermally cracked (col. 2,
lines 12-18).
The portion of the Wernicke article relied upon by the
examiner (answer, page 4) discloses a thermal cracking process
wherein vacuum distillate is deasphalted to an asphaltene level
below 0.5 wt%, hydrotreated, and then steam cracked (page 140;
figure 1).
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