Appeal No. 2003-1788
Application No. 09/403,081
A “burner” is a device that produces a flame. It must mix
the fuel and an oxidizing agent in proportions that are within
the limits of flammability for ignition as well as for steady
combustion. See page 9-15 of Chemical Engineers’ Handbook, fifth
edition, 1973.1
The aforementioned definition of a “burner” reinforces
appellants’ position made on page 7 of the Brief that their
reaction chamber 8 functions differently from a burner. The
definition also reinforces our finding that Gitman’s chamber 102
is part of the burner means. Gitman can introduce the remaining
feed gas, if any, to chamber 102 via line 108, in combination
with oxygen feed. See page 13, lines 5-25.
On the other hand, no feed gas is introduced into
appellants’ region 8. For example, figures 1-3 of the
specification each depicts that there are no lines for feeding
feed gas into combustion chamber 8. Only inner tube 11 exists
for feeding only oxygen gas (or an oxygen-rich gas) to combustion
reactor 8. No lines are indicated for use in introducing a feed
gas. Outer tube 12 (depicted in each of appellant’s figures) is
used to introduce a protecting gas to cool nozzle (9).
Appellant’s specification also indicates that an
afterburning zone is produced in reaction chamber 8 by highly
turbulent self-priming oxygen jets. In this way, the already
processed gas from the burner is subjected to complete
afterburning in combustion reactor 8. In this way, the reactions
taking place in the combustion chamber 8 proceed closer to the
thermodynamic equilibrium. See specification page 7, line 37
through page 8, line 6. The oxygen is blown in, at high
velocity, into the combustion reactor 8. See specification, page
1 A copy of pages 9-15 from Chemical Engineers’ Handbook, Fifth
Edition, 1973, is provided herewith.
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