Process and apparatus for treating particulate matter

Abstract

The present invention provides a process for treating a particulate material, in which particles of the material to be treated interact with non-static particles of a second material, the process comprising the steps of: (i) providing a processing chamber (1) having an inlet (7) and an outlet (10) spaced downstream therefrom, the base (15) of said chamber comprising a plurality of outwardly radiating inclined vanes (20, 25), (ii) providing a host bed of particles (30) which include inert particles, alumina, limestone and activated carbon in the chamber (1) and generating a flow of fluid through the vanes (20, 25) at the base (15) of the processing chamber such that the bed of host particles (30) circulates about an axis of the chamber in a compact band, (iii) injecting particles of the material to be treated including sulphide ore, kaolin, gypsum and talc through an inlet (5) of the chamber (1) to contact with the circulating bed of the host particles (30), wherein the relative terminal velocity of the particles to be treated (45) and the host particles (30) is such that there is little or substantially no migration of the host particles to the outlet (10), and wherein substantially all of the particles of the material to be treated migrate downstream through the circulating host particles to the outlet (10). The process may be used to treat sulphide ores, for flash devolitization, calcination and gasification.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.