Appeal No. 2006-0601
Application No. 10/430,030
1. An apparatus for converting dirty fuels to steam
and useful gas, the apparatus comprising:
a combustor burning dirty fuels producing heat and exhaust;
a steam boiler receiving the heat from the combustor to
produce steam; and
a gasifier wherein biomass material and the exhaust from the
combustor result in useful gas.
The references set forth below are relied upon by the
examiner in the Section 102 rejections before us:
Sacks 3,966,634 Jun. 29, 1976
Horgan 4,478,039 Oct. 23, 1984
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being
anticipated by either Horgan or Sacks.
Rather than reiterate the respective positions advocated by
the appellant and by the examiner, we refer to the brief and
reply brief and to the answer for a complete exposition thereof.
OPINION
For the reasons which follow, we will sustain each of these
rejections.
It is the appellant’s basic position that neither the Horgan
apparatus nor the Sacks apparatus provides the gasifier with
exhaust from the combustor as required by the appealed claim.
More specifically, the appellant argues that conduit 48 of Horgan
is disclosed as transferring heat, but not exhaust, from
2
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