Consolidation and dewatering of particulate matter with protein

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9644318-B2
Application number	US-201314400803-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2013
Priority date	Jul 17, 2012
Publication date	May 9, 2017
Grant date	May 9, 2017

Abstract

A method of treating a suspension of particles in a fluid including the steps of promoting flocculation of the particles, and dewatering the flocs to form a cake with a solids content, an improvement including the step of exposing the suspension to chemicals of the protein family. The suspension can include a suspension of biological sludge in water. The suspension can be a suspension of non biological material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. In a method of treating a suspension of particles in a fluid including the steps of (i) promoting flocculation of at least a portion of the suspension of particles with an additive and (ii) dewatering at least a portion of the suspension of particles to form a cake with a solids content, the improvement comprising promoting flocculation of at least a portion of the suspension of particles with an additive comprising protein;
wherein the protein structure is not separated from the reaction mixture used to extract the protein from soy flour; and
wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the additive is between approximately 0.01 and 30 lbs/ton of particles, expressed on a dry solids basis.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the additive is between approximately 0.01 and 10,000 mg/liter of the fluid.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the additive further comprises a flocculant.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the flocculant is a cationic polymer.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the flocculant is a cationic polyacrylamide.

6. The method of claim 3 , where the flocculant is present at a concentration ranging from approximately 1%-90% of the concentration of the total amount of protein present.

7. A method of forming a cake with solids content from particles in a fluid comprising:
subjecting at least a portion of the particles in the fluid with an additive; and
dewatering at least a portion of the solids content from particles to form a cake with a solids content;
wherein the additive comprises one or more proteins;
wherein the protein structure is not separated from the reaction mixture used to extract the protein from soy flour; and
wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the additive is between approximately 0.01 and 10,000 mg/liter of fluid.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the additive is between approximately 0.01 and 30 lbs/ton of particles, expressed on a dry solids basis.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the additive further comprises a flocculant; and
wherein the flocculant is a cationic polymer.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the additive further comprises a flocculant; and
wherein the flocculant is a cationic polyacrylamide.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the additive further comprises a flocculant; and
where the flocculant is present at a concentration ranging from approximately 1%-90% of the concentration of the total amount of protein present.

12. In a method of treating a suspension of particles in a fluid including the steps of (i) promoting flocculation of the particles and (ii) dewatering the flocs to form a cake with a solids content, the improvement comprising the step (iii) of exposing the suspension to one or more proteins, which step (iii) increases the solids content of the cake after the step (ii) of dewatering over that which is provided without step (iii);
wherein the protein structure is not separated from the reaction mixture used to extract the protein from soy flour; and
wherein the suspension is a suspension selected from the group consisting of biological sludge, non-biological sludge, pulp fiber, and a combination of one or more biological sludge, non-biological sludge and pulp fiber.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the protein structure is derived from soy protein and derivatives thereof;
wherein the fluid is water.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the suspension is between approximately 0.01 and 30 lbs/ton of the particles expressed on a dry solids basis.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the suspension is between approximately 0.01 and 10,000 mg/liter of the fluid.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising exposing the suspension to a flocculant, wherein the flocculant is present at a concentration ranging from 1%-90% of the concentration of the total amount of protein present in the suspension.

Assignees

• Georgia Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Banerjee Sujit

Classifications

• C02F11/127

  by centrifugation · CPC title

• C02F1/5272

  using specific organic precipitants · CPC title

• C02F11/122

  using filter presses (C02F11/123 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C02F1/5263

  using natural chemical compounds · CPC title

• D21H17/22

  Proteins · CPC title