US 4,228,001 AGranted

Folded moving bed ion exchange apparatus and method

AssigneeAmerican Petro Mart, Inc.

InventorLee G. Carlson

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Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for removing contaminants or for recovering valuable minerals in trace amounts by ion exchange treatment of liquids such as municipal and industrial waste waters, ore mining and processing tailings, and the like as they flow through a resin bed wherein ions in the liquid are sorbed into the resin by an ion exchange mechanism. The resin bed is a folded, moving bed which exhibits all of the advantages of a packed ion exchange resin bed. Laminar flows are developed throughout the moving bed system to maintain all interfaces intact, even during the rinsing operation, while the moving bed used is of a "folded" type having a maximum height approximately one-third that of conventional countercurrent units. The ion exchange treatment occurs within a loading vessel resin bed, the beads in the feed portion of which become exhausted and sequentially move out of the loading vessel for subsequent regeneration and rinsing, followed by eventual return to the loading vessel.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A packed moving-bed ion exchange apparatus, comprising:

a loading vessel having a feed conduit and a collecting means for passing a feed liquid through a packed ion exchange resin bed therewithin, said loading vessel having a resin inlet and a resin outlet;
a loading reservoir in resin-passing communication with said resin inlet of the loading vessel through a transfer conduit and through a resin valve between said resin inlet of the loading vessel and said transfer conduit, said loading reservoir containing a movable packed resin bed;
a regeneration vessel in resin-passing communication with said loading reservoir, said regeneration vessel having a movable packed resin bed and a liquid distribution head therewithin, said distribution head being below said communication of the regeneration vessel to the loading reservoir;
a regeneration reservoir in resin-passing communication with said regeneration vessel at a location below said distribution head, said regeneration reservoir having a movable packed resin bed therewithin;
pumping means for passing regenerating solution into said regeneration vessel through said distribution head;
pumping means for moving rinse liquor through said resin bed of said loading reservoir, said pumping means having an outlet opening into said transfer conduit, said pumping means outlet being closed to said loading vessel by said resin valve for pumping said rinse liquor together with a plug of resin upwardly into said loading reservoir;
pneumatic means in association with said regeneration vessel for laminarly moving a portion of the resin bed within said regeneration vessel into said loading reservoir to pass resin from said loading reservoir into said loading vessel;
and
a resin slurry transfer conduit communicating said resin outlet of the loading vessel with said regeneration reservoir.

6 more elements

A packed moving-bed ion exchange method, comprising:

providing a movable packed ion exchange resin bed within a plurality of columns, said plurality including a loading column, a loading reservoir column, a regeneration column, and a regeneration reservoir column;
flowing a feed liquid through said loading column to remove ionic materials therefrom;
washing said loading reservoir column and a portion of said regeneration column by passing a rinse liquior therethrough, said washing step including a resin raising step by pumping said rinse liquor together with a plug of resin upwardly into said loading reservoir column;
regenerating at least a portion of said regeneration column and said regeneration reservoir column by passing a regenerating solution therethrough;
a first resin movement step for transferring a portion of washed loading reservoir column into said loading column by a laminar movement;
a second resin movement step for transferring a portion of said regeneration reservoir column into said regeneration column by a laminar movement;
and
a third resin movement step for transferring a spent portion of said loading column into said regeneration reservoir column.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.