Water-slurry process

Biological—Biochemical Processes. Fermentation is a biological process in which a water slurry or solution of raw material interacts with microorganisms and is enzymatically converted to other products. Biomass can be subjected to fermentation conditions to form a variety of products. Two of the most common fermentation processes yield methane and ethanol. Biochemical processes include those that occur naturally within the biomass. 

Ana.eroblc Digestion. Methane can be produced from water slurries of biomass by anaerobic digestion in the presence of mixed populations of anaerobes. This process has been used for many years to stabilize municipal sewage sludges for purposes of disposal. Presuming the biomass is all cellulose, the chemistry can be represented in simplified form as follows ... 

N2, and traces of PH, CO2, E, and S large furnaces generate off-gas at a rate of about 120—180 m /min. In most installations the off-gas is passed through a series of Cottrell electrostatic precipitators which remove 80—95% of the dust particles. The precipitators ate operated at temperatures above the 180°C dew point of the phosphoms. The collected dust is either handled as a water slurry or treated dry. Einal disposal is to a landfill or the dust is partially recycled back to the process. The phosphoms is typically condensed in closed spray towers that maintain spray water temperatures between 20 and 60°C. The condensed product along with the accompanying spray water is processed in sumps where the water is separated and recycled to the spray condenser, and the phosphoms and impurities ate settled for subsequent purification. 

The slurry process requires less coating component. The latter is suspended in a vehicle, eg, lacquer or water, and is painted onto the substrate. The coated part is heated in an alumina retort containing a layer of activator at the bottom. The coating component forms a haHde and is deposited onto and diffused into the substrate. Slurry processes can be either activated or nonactivated. In the latter case, development of the coating reHes purely on diffusion without the possible benefits of vapor deposition. 

Carbonates. Basic zirconium carbonate [37356-18-6] is produced in a two-step process in which zirconium is precipitated as a basic sulfate from an oxychloride solution. The carbonate is formed by an exchange reaction between a water slurry of basic zirconium sulfate and sodium carbonate or ammonium carbonate at 80°C (203). The particulate product is easily filtered. Freshly precipitated zirconium hydroxide, dispersed in water under carbon dioxide in a pressure vessel at ca 200—300 kPa (2—3 atm), absorbs carbon dioxide to form the basic zirconium carbonate (204). Washed free of other anions, it can be dissolved in organic acids such as lactic, acetic, citric, oxaUc, and tartaric to form zirconium oxy salts of these acids. 

Liquids. Liquids (33) are common forming additives in plastic, paste, and slurry processing. In plastic forming operations, the Hquid aids forming and serves as the binder/plasticizer for the system. In pastes and slurries, other additives are also dissolved or dispersed in the Hquid/solvent. Water is a good, inexpensive solvent that can be recycled. Organic Hquids such as alcohols are used to process water-sensitive materials and to dissolve water-insoluble forming additives, however, at considerably more expense. 

The largest class of processes appHed to farm commodities are separations, which are usually based on some physical property such as density, particle size, or solubiHty. For example, the milling process for cereal grains involves size reduction (qv) foUowed by screening to yield products that have varied concentrations of starch, fiber, and protein. Milling of water slurries is practiced to obtain finer separation of starch, fiber, protein, and oil. 

A successful variation of oil agglomeration was used for removal and dewatering of soot from a 1—3% soflds suspension consisting of <5 — fim particles in refinery process waters (Fig. 8). Heavy oil was added to the dilute slurry and intensely agitated in a multistage mixer. The soot agglomerated with the oil to form 3—5 mm pellets that were easily screened from the water (95). The pellets contained only 5—10% water. The process was modified to recover very fine clean coal, and it produced highly uniform, hard, spherical pellets 1—2 mm in diameter. 

Epichlorohydrin Elastomers without AGE. Polymerization on a commercial scale is done as either a solution or slurry process at 40—130°C in an aromatic, ahphatic, or ether solvent. Typical solvents are toluene, benzene, heptane, and diethyl ether. Trialkylaluniinum-water and triaLkylaluminum—water—acetylacetone catalysts are employed. A cationic, coordination mechanism is proposed for chain propagation. The product is isolated by steam coagulation. Polymerization is done as a continuous process in which the solvent, catalyst, and monomer are fed to a back-mixed reactor. Pinal product composition of ECH—EO is determined by careful control of the unreacted, or background, monomer in the reactor. In the manufacture of copolymers, the relative reactivity ratios must be considered. The reactivity ratio of EO to ECH has been estimated to be approximately 7 (35—37). 

In a typical batch suspension process (Figure 12-5), styrene is suspended in water by agitation and use of a stabilizer. The polymer forms beads. The bead/water slurry is separated by centrifugation, dried, and blended with additives. 

The Texaco gasification process, currently owned by GE, is also of the EF type. A main difference with the aforementioned technologies is that the fuel is fed as a water slurry, whereas Koppers-Totzek- and Shell-based coal gasifiers use some steam. 

For rayon fiber based composites (Sections 3 and 4) the fiber and powdered resins were mixed in a water slurry in approximately equal parts by mass. The isotropic pitch carbon fiber composites (Section 5) were manufactured with less binder, typically a 4 1 mass ratio of fiber to binder being utilized. The slurry was transferred to a molding tank and the water drawn through a porous screen under vacuum. In previous studies [2] it was established that a head of water must be maintained over the mold screen in order to prevent the formation of large voids, and thus to assure uniform properties. The fabrication process allows the manufacture of slab or tubular forms. In the latter case, the cylinders were molded over a perforated tubular mandrel covered with a fine mesh or screen. Moreover, it is possible to mold contoured plates, and tubes, to near net shape via this synthesis route. 

Traditionally, com is dry-milled and suspended in boiling water to free the carbohydrate-rich starch compound from the nonstarch, cellulose biomass. The starch and cellulose components at this stage carry through the process. The non-convertible cellulose biomass is later separated. The milled com-water slurry, called mash, is boiled for about 1 hour. Enzymes such as a-amylase can be added to the process to help prevent gellation of starch. 

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