Appeal 2007-0620
Application 10/323,626
The plain language of independent claim 1 encompasses processes
preparing chlorine by the exothermic gas-phase oxidation reaction of
hydrogen chloride and molecular oxygen, carried out in any reactor which,
as illustrated, inter alia, by Specification Figs. 1-3, has a bundle of parallel
catalyst tubes 2 aligned in the longitudinal direction and fixed by tube plates
3, and one or more deflection plates 6 arranged perpendicular to the catalyst
tubes in the intermediate spaces between the tubes with passages 7 located
alternatively next to the interior wall on opposite sides of the reactor
(Specification 12). Thus, the reactor has a “wall,” shell, or jacket
surrounding the bundle of parallel catalyst tubes. Claim 1 further specifies
passing any liquid heat transfer medium 25 through the intermediate space
around the catalyst tubes “in a defined, virtually purely transverse flow of
the liquid heat transfer medium against the catalyst tubes.” There is no
limitation specifying any specific process parameter, such as catalyst
packing, temperature, and pressure.
The Specification discloses it is “a shell-and-tube reactor which has
no tubes in the region of the passages” that achieves the specified “defined,
virtually purely transverse flow of the liquid heat transfer medium” as
claimed in claim 1 (Specification 3:27-35). One of ordinary skill in this art
readily knows that a “shell-and-tube” reactor has several parallel catalyst
tubes in a bundle surrounded by a shell, that is, a wall or jacket, for heat
transfer purposes, the basic design of which can be gleaned from the shell-
and-tube reactors illustrated in the Specification Figs. and, for example, in
Smith’s Fig. 1. In contrast, the claims do not encompass a tubular reactor in
which a single tube is surrounded by a shell, wall or jacket for heat transfer
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Last modified: September 9, 2013