Appeal 2007-0620
Application 10/323,626
purposes.3
The plain language of dependent claim 17, as illustrated, inter alia, by
Specification Figs. 1C and 2C, specifies gaps 20 of from 0.1 to 0.4 mm are
present between catalyst tubes 2 and deflection 6 (Specification 12). The
plain language of dependent claim 33, as illustrated, inter alia, by
Specification Fig. 3, specifies the reactor contains at least two reaction zones
separated in a largely liquid-tight manner by dividing plates 11 (id.).
We find Iwanaga would have disclosed to one of ordinary skill in this
art processes preparing chlorine by the exothermic gas-phase oxidation
reaction of hydrogen chloride and molecular oxygen in which excessive hot
spots in the catalyst layers in the reaction zone are suppressed by dividing
the catalyst-packed layer into two reaction zones of different activity and by
controlling the temperature of the reaction zones with a heat exchanger
system (Iwanaga, e.g., col. 1, ll. 44-55, col. 5, ll. 15-37, and col. 6,
ll. 17-37). “[T]he heat exchanger system means a system providing a jacket
outside the tubular reactor, which is filled with the catalyst” (id. col. 6,
ll. 21-25). “In the industrial process, a shell-and-tube heat exchanger type
fixed bed multi-tube reactor may be used, in which tubular reactors . . . are
arranged in parallel, and a jacket is provided around the tubular reactors”
(id. col. 6, ll. 28-33; emphasis added). The heat exchange system medium
can be molten salts (id. col. 6, ll. 37-50). Iwanaga teaches that the catalyst
layer is divided into at least two reaction zones the temperatures of which
are controlled by the heat exchanger system wherein, inter alia, “a jacket is
3 See, e.g., Tubular Reactor, Chemical Engineers’ Handbook 4-21 and
Fig. 4-4 (Robert H. Perry and Cecil H. Chilton eds., 5th ed., New York,
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