Process of sonically treating municipal waste to produce high quality paper pulp and fertilizer

In a process of treating solid waste containing at least 10 percent by wt. of paper and paper products after removal of the ferrous and non-ferrous metals, glass, ceramics and the like;

• the improvement wherein a long fiber pulp is recovered comprising sonically pulping the waste to defiber the paper and paper products without shearing the fibers in the presence of an aqueous alkaline slurry containing a calcium or magnesium compound or mixtures thereof, a solvent and a wetting agent in a consistency range of about 3.5 to 10 percent by wt., adding water to reduce the consistency range from 0.5 to 3.5 percent by wt., separating the non-paper combustibles therefrom, expressing the chemicals and water from the slurry to decrease the pulp consistency to about 20 to 50 percent by wt., reacting the expressed chemicals with an acid to precipitate the Ca or Mg and carry with it ink, coatings, waxes and adhesives, allowing the precipitate to settle, decanting the liquid above the settled precipitate for recycling, removing the pulp from the slurry and separating the fibers therefrom.

In a process of treating solid waste containing at least 10 percent by wt. of paper and paper products after removal of the ferrous and non-ferrous metals, glass, ceramics and the like;

• the improvement wherein a fertilizer is produced while recovering high quality paper pulp comprising pulping the waste in the presence of water, a calcium or magnesium compound or mixtures thereof, an ammonium compound, a solvent and a wetting agent at an alkaline pH not exceeding 10.5, separating the non-paper pulp combustibles from the slurry, expressing the chemicals and water from the slurry, treating the expressed chemicals with ions to precipitate CaNH.sub.4 PO.sub.4, MgNH.sub.4 PO.sub.4 or mixtures thereof together with inks, coatings, waxes and adhesives removed from the pulp fibers, allowing the reaction mixture to settle, drawing off the settled precipitate and removing moisture therefrom to produce a fertilizer providing the nutrient atoms N, P and Mg.

The A of treating paper and paper products containing inks, coatings, waxes and adhesives to produce light long fiber pulp and fertilizers comprising subjecting the paper and paper products to sonic pulping to prevent shearing of the fibers in the presence of water, a calcium or magnesium compound or mixtures thereof, an ammonium compound, a solvent and a wetting agent at an alkaline pH up to 10.5 to form a slurry of paper pulp and the added chemicals, reacting the slurry with phosphate ions to form a precipitate of calcium or magnesium ammonium phosphate or mixtures thereof carrying inks, coatings, waxes and adhesives therewith, allowing the precipitate to settle out and removing it for use as a fertilizer, removing the pulp slurry which did not settle out and separating the fibers from the liquid to produce long fiber pulp.

A process of treating paper and paper products containing contaminants to produce light long fiber pulp comprising subjecting the paper and paper products to pulping to prevent shearing of the fibers in the presence of water, a calcium or magnesium compound or mixtures thereof, an ammonium compound, a solvent for the contaminants and a wetting agent at an alkaline pH to form a slurry of paper pulp and the added chemicals, reacting the slurry with phosphate ions to form a precipitate of calcium or magnesium ammonium phosphate or mixtures thereof carrying the contaminants therewith, and separating the pulp slurry from the precipitate, the pulp slurry containing long fiber decontaminated pulp.

In a process of treating solid waste containing at least 10 percent by wt. of paper and paper products whose fibers contain contaminants;

• the improvement wherein a fertilizer is produced while recovering decontaminated paper pulp comprising pulping the waste in the presence of water, a calcium or magnesium compound or mixtures thereof, an ammonium compound, a solvent for said paper contaminants and a wetting agent at an alkaline pH to form a slurry, reacting the slurry with phosphate ions to precipitate calcium or magnesium ammonium phosphate or mixtures thereof together with said paper contaminants, and removing the precipitate from the slurry for use as a fertilizer providing the nutrient atoms N, P and Mg. when the magnesium compound is used in the pulping slurry.