Consolidation and dewatering of particulate matter with protein
AssigneeGeorgia Tech Research Corporation
InventorSujit Banerjee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of treating a suspension of particles in a fluid including the steps of promoting flocculation of the particles, and dewatering the flocs to form a cake with a solids content, an improvement including the step of exposing the suspension to chemicals of the protein family. The suspension can include a suspension of biological sludge in water. The suspension can be a suspension of non biological material.
Claims24
In a method of treating a suspension of particles in a fluid including the steps of (i) promoting flocculation of at least a portion of the suspension of particles with an additive and (ii) dewatering at least a portion of the suspension of particles to form a cake with a solids content, the improvement comprising promoting flocculation of at least a portion of the suspension of particles with an additive comprising protein;
- wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the additive is between approximately 0.01 and 30 lbs/ton of particles, expressed on a dry solids basis.
-4. (canceled)
A method of forming a cake with solids content from particles in a fluid comprising:
- subjecting at least a portion of the particles in the fluid with an additive;
- and
- dewatering at least a portion of the solids content from particles to form a cake with a solids content;
- wherein the additive comprises one or more proteins;
- wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the additive is between approximately 0.01 and 10,000 mg/liter of fluid.
(canceled)
-16. (canceled)
In a method of treating a suspension of particles in a fluid including the steps of (i) promoting flocculation of the particles and (ii) dewatering the flocs to form a cake with a solids content, the improvement comprising the step (iii) of exposing the suspension to one or more proteins, which step (iii) increases the solids content of the cake after the step (ii) of dewatering over that which is provided without step (iii).
-29. (canceled)
-45. (canceled)
-48. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.