Process for crystallization of mineral salts
AssigneePPG Industries, Inc.
InventorDavid A. Larsen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Mineral salts, e.g., potassium chloride, are crystallized from aqueous solutions thereof in the presence of a crystal growth promoting amount of lecithin or lecithin containing compositions. Mineral salts include alkali metal and alkaline-earth metal chloride, sulfate, carbonate, phosphate and nitrate salts. The process is described as providing increased amounts of large crystals and a narrower and more uniform crystal size distribution.
Claims19
In the process for crystallizing a mineral salt from an aqueous solution containing said mineral salt, said salt being a salt of a metal ion selected from the group consisting of sodium, magnesium, potassium and calcium, and an anion selected from the group consisting of chloride, sulfate, carbonate, phosphate and nitrate, the improvement comprising crystallizing said mineral salt in the presence of at least 5 parts of lecithin per million parts of aqueous solution, said resultant crystals being larger than those crystallized in the absence of lecithin.
In the process of crystallizing a mineral salt selected from the group consisting of sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, sodium phosphate, sodium nitrate, magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate, magnesium carbonate, magnesium phosphate, magnesium nitrate, calcium chloride, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, calcium nitrate, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, potassium carbonate, potassium phosphate and potassium nitrate from an aqueous solution containing said mineral salt, the improvement comprising crystallizing said mineral salt in the presence of from 5 to 1000 parts of lecithin per million parts of aqueous solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.