I have no need to comment further onn Agilyx's patent if we operate under atmospheric pressure - with or without an inert nitrogen purge. Taking away a claimed element of a system or method patent does not infringe. Adding an element (eg the catalyst) but still using all of the claimed elements does.
I agree. If JBII's process works as they claim then they have effectively improved upon Agilyx's patent. All the more reason for JBII to protect that IP as soon as possible - after all, Agilyx would be interested in that technology and it wouldn't take much for them to reverse-engineer this: