As per patent office journal dated 10/09/2021, patent number 376406 has been granted to NALCO COMPANY that is titled CHEMICAL TREATMENT TO IMPROVE RED MUD SEPARATION AND WASHING IN THE BAYER PROCESS.
The primary independent claim of this patent states a method for treating Bayer Process slurry containing liquor and red mud, the method includes adding flocculant and a cross-linked polysaccharide to a feed of a primary settler to provide an overflow and an underflow containing flocculated red mud and further separating the overflow from the underflow. The cross-linking is achieved with a cross-linking agent selected from the group consisting of N,N-methylene bis methacrylamide, polyethylene glycol diacrylate, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, diethylene glycol dimethacrylate, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate, polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate, polypropylene glycol dimethacrylate, N-vinyl acrylamide, divinylbenzene, triallyl ammonium salts, N-methyl allyl acrylamide, glycidyl acrylate, acrolein, methylolacrylamide, glyoxal, dialdehydes, diglycidyl ethers, and any combination thereof
During the patent prosecution, the patent examiner objected to this patent under section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act. The patent applicant responded to this objection by stating that the claimed process for preparing a composition defines novel and non-obvious technical features and therefore cannot be considered as a mere use of a “known” process as disclosed in the cited references. Therefore, the present invention does not fall under section 3(d) of the Patents Act.
This patent falls under the category of Chemical. Overall, this patent covers an invention that provides methods and compositions for improving the rheology of red mud removed from Bayer Process liquor. The method includes adding a flocculant and a cross-linked polysaccharide to the liquor that separates the red mud from the liquor but also prevents the red mud from becoming too thick. This allows the formation of extremely dense amounts of red mud even in primary settlers because the dense red mud can still flow. Consequently, a user can simultaneously enjoy both easy handling of red mud and also high recovery rates of valuable alumina and caustic from the red mud.
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