Back to results
US 4,844,814 AGranted
System and method for separating solutes and particulates in solvents by enhanced diffusion produced by tuned oscullations
AssigneeUniversity of Florida
InventorMarc J. Jaeger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention is predicated on the discovery that mixtures of solutes and/or particulates of differing masses dissolved or suspended in a liquid media can be separated at high differential flow rates by an enhanced diffusion technique involving the oscillation of the liquid media containing the solutes and/or particulates within one or more ducts or capillaries in the presence of axial concentration gradients.
Claims13
A method for separating solutes or particulates of differing masses from a mixture thereof contained in a liquid and from each other by enhanced diffusion comprising conducting at least one cycle of:
- feeding a liquid containing a member selected from the group consisting of a mixture of said solutes of differing masses to be separated, a mixture of particulates of differing masses to be separated, a mixture of particulates of differing masses to be separated, or a mixture of at least one solute and at least one particulate of differing masses to be separated into a first reservoir which is connected by at least one duct to a second reservoir;
- feeding into said second reservoir a liquid capable of receiving and containing said solutes or particulates;
- establishing sinusoidal oscillatory axial movement of liquid within said at least one duct such that the tidal displacement in said at least one duct is maintained sufficiently small so as to maintain a condition of zero net convection between the ends of said at least one duct and the liquid in said second reservoir is enriched in the heavier of said member mixture components.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.