Appeal No. 2004-1013
Application No. 09/985,553
Balko, the examiner’s primary reference in each of the
standing rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a), is directed to a
system (method and apparatus) for removing emissions from the
exhaust gases of an internal combustion engine (column 1, lines
4-7). With reference to Figure 2, Balko provides a non-thermal
plasma reactor 34 that converts a portion of liquid engine fuel and
a carrier gas (which may be a portion of the exhaust gas) into a
highly reactive reducing gas. This highly reactive gas is
introduced (via line 12) into the exhaust stream 13 upstream of a
reducing catalyst 15 to convert NOx in the exhaust gas to N2.
Balko’s engine is controlled by a programmable engine control
unit. More particularly, Balko states at column 9, line 62,
through column 10, line 13, that the engine
is under the control of a conventional, programmable
engine control unit, or ECU, 26. As is well known, ECU
26 receives input from a number of sensors such asa [sic,
as a] temperature sensor illustrated schematically for
drawing clarity by reference numeral 27. After receiving
sensor inputs, ECU 26 interpolates the data and performs
programmed routines to generate a number of signals
outputted to various actuators such as actuator 28 which
controls, for example, the fuel injectors within engine
25. Specific to the invention, ECU performs conventional
open loop control for each engine by mapping routines
using look-up tables and data taken by a number of
sensors, such as those indicative of temperature, oxygen
content of the products of combustion, fueling, speed,
etc. to determine the NOx content in the products of
combustion, exhaust gas temperature, exhaust gas space
velocity, etc. while engine 25 operates. When commercial
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