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US 4,420,404 AGranted
Process for dewatering fine granular materials
AssigneeDravo Corporation
InventorsDavid W. Coate, Joseph G. Selmeczi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for the dewatering of fine granular material is disclosed. During compression of the material, fluid is expressed and a small percentage of the material is intentionally permitted to escape through a self-cleaning opening in the apparatus. By maintaining the smallest dimension of the opening in the range of one to five times the diameter of the largest particle in the material, the opening remain essentially clear of any material which could cause plugging.
Claims4
A process for the dewatering of fine granular material and producing a coarse puck product comprising:
- loading the fine granular material into an enclosed compression chamber having a drainage opening therein which is open and forms a non-tortuous path leading from the compression chamber, and wherein said granular material has a particle size one to five times smaller than the width of said drainage opening;
- and
- applying a compressive force against the material thereby initially expressing fluid and material from the compression chamber via the non-tortuous path through the drainage opening until the intergranular friction of the particles of the material is increased so that material fluidization ceases allowing agglomeration of the material to occur and bridging of the drainage opening to take place thereby forming a coarse puck product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.