Appeal No. 2003-0715
Application No. 09/873,806
Claims 1-6, 9, and 10: Ballard & Nagai
Ballard describes a process for activating and cleaning a
weak acid cation exchange resin beads comprising:
(a) hydrolyzing the resin beads; and
(b) cleaning the beads by: (i) washing including treatment
with an alcohol; (ii) steam stripping; or (iii) steam
stripping porogens from the beads and then washing
them to remove any free solid particulate material.
(Column 1, lines 7-18; column 6, lines 12-39.) In Example 2,
Ballard teaches converting a neutralized salt form of the resin
(beads containing sodium acrylate functional groups) to the
hydrogen-form with hydrochloric acid, which is described in the
present specification as an “acid regenerant.” (Specification,
page 5, line 27 to page 7, line 16.)
Similarly, Nagai describes a process for cleaning and
treating weak acid cation exchange resins comprising:
(a) cleaning the beads with hot water to remove suspension
stabilizer, unreacted monomer, and pore forming agent;
and
Accordingly, for the first ground of rejection, we confine our
discussion to claim 1; for the second ground of rejection, we
confine our discussion to claim 7. 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7)(1995).
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