Installation for the purification of minerals, pigments and/or fillers and/or the preparation of precipitated earth alkali carbonate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10053582-B2
Application number	US-201314370340-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2013
Priority date	Feb 3, 2012
Publication date	Aug 21, 2018
Grant date	Aug 21, 2018

Abstract

The present invention relates to an installation for the purification of minerals, pigments and/or fillers and/or the preparation of precipitated earth alkali carbonate and/or mineralization of water and to the use of such an installation for the purification of minerals, pigments and/or fillers and/or mineralization of water and/or the preparation of precipitated earth alkali carbonate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An installation for the purification of minerals, pigments and/or fillers and/or the preparation of precipitated earth alkali carbonate and/or mineralization of water, the installation comprising in fluid communication:
a) at least one mixing unit provided with at least two inlets and at least one outlet,
b) at least one dividing unit comprising dividing means, and
c) at least one membrane filtration unit provided with at least one inlet and at least one outlet,
wherein at least one outlet of the at least one mixing unit is connected to at least one inlet of the at least one membrane filtration unit and at least one outlet of the at least one membrane filtration unit is connected to at least one inlet of the at least one mixing unit,
wherein the at least one mixing unit and the at least one dividing unit are separate,
wherein the at least one mixing unit comprises a heating device capable of heating the content of the at least one mixing unit to a temperature between 5° C and 90° C, and
wherein the installation comprises at least one gas inlet and the gas inlet is a CO 2 inlet.

2. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one mixing unit comprises a stirring device.

3. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one dividing unit is at least one grinding device and/or at least one crushing device.

4. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one dividing unit is at least one vertical grinding device and/or at least one vertical crushing device or at least one horizontal grinding device and/or at least one horizontal crushing device.

5. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one dividing unit is a conical annular gap bead mill.

6. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one dividing unit comprises dividing means having a weight median particle diameter d 50 value of from 0.01 mm to 100 mm, or from 0.1 mm to 75 mm, or from 0.5 mm to 5 mm.

7. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one dividing unit comprises moving beads as dividing means made of a material selected from the group comprising quartz sand, glass, porcelain, zirconium oxide, zirconium silicate and mixtures thereof, optionally comprising minor quantities of further minerals.

8. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the dividing means of the at least one dividing unit are made of a mineral, pigment and/or filler material.

9. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the dividing means and the minerals, pigments and/or fillers to be purified and/or to be prepared are of the same material.

10. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one membrane filtration unit is a cross flow membrane filtration device, a cross flow membrane microfiltration device and/or a cross flow membrane ultrafiltration device.

11. The installation according to claim 10 , wherein the at least one membrane filtration unit is a cross flow membrane filtration device comprising at least one tube filter membrane having an inner diameter of the tube from 0.01 mm to 25 mm, or from 0.1 mm to 10 mm.

12. The installation according to claim 10 , wherein the at least one membrane filtration unit comprises at least one membrane having a pore size of between 0.01 μm and 10 μm, or of between 0.05 μm and 5 μm, or of between 0.1 μm and 2 μm.

13. The installation according to claim 12 , wherein the membrane is made from a sintered material, a porous porcelain, a synthetic polymer, polyethylene, polypropylene, Teflon®, or any mixture thereof.

14. The installation according to claim 10 , wherein the at least one membrane filtration unit is a cross flow membrane filtration device having a speed of flow across its at least one membrane of between 0.1 m/s and 10 m/s, or between 0.5 m/s and 5 m/s, or between 1 m/s and 4 m/s, and/or an inlet pressure of between 0 bar and 30 bar, or between 0.2 bar and 10 bar, or between 0.5 and 5 bar.

15. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the installation comprises at least three outlets, or at least four outlets, or at least five outlets and/or the installation comprises at least four inlets, at least five inlets, or at least six inlets.

16. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one mixing unit comprises at least two outlets and/or at least three inlets, or at least four inlets.

17. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one mixing unit comprises at least two inlets being liquid inlets, or at least three liquid inlets, or at least four liquid inlets.

18. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the installation comprises at least one control unit regulating the filling level of the at least one mixing unit, pump speed, pH, conductivity, calcium ion concentration optionally by ion sensitive electrode, and/or temperature.

19. The Installation according to claim 1 , wherein the installation comprises at least one pump located between the at least one mixing unit and the at least one membrane filtration unit.

20. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein at least one outlet of the at least one mixing unit is connected to at least one inlet of the at least one dividing unit and at least one outlet of the at least one dividing unit is connected to at least one inlet of the at least one mixing unit.

21. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the installation further comprises at least one pump located between the at least one mixing unit and the at least one dividing unit.

22. The installation according to 21 , wherein the pumping capacity of the at least one pump (in m 3 /h of the sum) feeding the at least one membrane filtration unit is 0.01 to 100 times the volume of the at least one mixing unit and/or the ratio of the pumping capacity of the at least one pump (in m 3 /h of the sum) feeding the at least one dividing unit to the pumping capacity of the at least one pump (in m 3 /h of the sum) feeding the at least membrane filtration unit is between 1:1 and 1:1000, or between 1:5 and 1:250.

23. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein at least one inlet being a gas inlet is located between the at least one mixing unit and the at least one dividing unit, or between a feed pump of the at least one dividing unit and the at least one dividing unit, or at the inlet of the dividing unit.

24. The installation according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one inlet being a gas inlet is a venturi injector that is located between the at least one mixing unit and the at least one dividing unit, or is located between the outlet of the at least one mixing unit and the inlet of the at least one dividing unit.

25. The installation according to claim 2 , wherein at least one inlet being a gas inlet is located at the top of a hollow shaft of the stirring device of the at least one mixing unit.

26. An installation for the purification of minerals, pigments and/or fillers and/or the preparation of precipitated earth alkali carbonate and/or mineralization of water, the installation comprising in fluid communication:
a) at least one mixing unit provided with at least two inlets and at least one outlet,
b) at least one dividing unit comprising dividing means, and
c) at least one membrane filtration unit provided with at least one inlet and at least one outlet,
wherein at least one outlet of the at least one mixing unit

Assignees

• Omya Int Ag

Inventors

• Buri Matthias
• Rentsch Samuel
• Gane Patrick A C
• Blum René Vinzenz

Classifications

• C09C3/041 Primary

  Grinding · CPC title

• C01P2006/12

  Surface area · CPC title

• C09C1/021

  Calcium carbonates · CPC title

• C01P2004/61

  Micrometer sized, i.e. from 1-100 micrometer · CPC title

• C01P2004/62

  Submicrometer sized, i.e. from 0.1-1 micrometer · CPC title