Claims
- 1. A process for converting particulate metal chlorides, sulfates, and oxides to the corresponding nitrates, comprising contacting the particulates with a fluidizing nitrogen-containing gas at a velocity sufficient to form a true fluidized bed of the particulates, maintaining the fluidized bed at a temperature in the range of from about 80° F. to about 800° F. for a time sufficient to permit the particulates to be converted to the corresponding nitrate while producing an effluent gas.
- 2. The process of claim 1, wherein the fluidizing gas is selected from the group consisting of nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, nitric acid vapors and mixtures thereof.
- 3. The process of claim 1, wherein the particulates include the group consisting of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, and mixtures thereof.
- 4. The process of claim 1, where a percentage of the effluent gas is recycled to sustain fluidization.
- 5. The process of claim 1, where nitrogen gas or dry air is added to nitrogen dioxide gas or added separately to sustain fluidization.
- 6. The process of claim 5, where the effluent gas contains nitrosyl chloride.
- 7. The process of claim 6, where the effluent gas is recovered for subsequent processing.
- 8. The process of claim 1, wherein the particulates are potassium chloride and are moistened with about 2.5% by weight water.
- 9. The process of claim 1, wherein the bed has a depth in the range of from about 12 inches to about four feet.
- 10. The process of claim 1, wherein the fluidizing gas is maintained in contact with the particulates for a time sufficient to remove substantially all nitrogen dioxide from the effluent gas.
- 11. A process for converting particulate chlorides, sulfates, and oxides from members of the group consisting of alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals, transition metals and mixtures thereof to the corresponding nitrates, comprising establishing a series of fluidized beds of the particulates by passing a fluidizing gas including a nitrogen oxide gas and dry air through the particulates at a velocity sufficient to establish and maintain the particulates in a fluidized state, the fluidizing gas leaving one bed and flowing upward through another bed in the series of beds until the fluidizing gas leaving the last bed in the series of beds are substantially free of nitrogen dioxide and the particulates leaving the first bed in the series of beds being substantially free of chlorides, sulfates, and oxygen.
- 12. The process of claim 11 wherein the fluidizing gas moves countercurrent to the direction of the transported particulates.
- 13. The process of claim 11 wherein the particulate chlorides, sulfates and oxides are selected from the group consisting of potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, zinc, iron and mixtures thereof and the oxides of nitrogen are selected from the group consisting of nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, and nitric acid vapors and mixtures thereof.
- 14. The process of claim 11 where a percentage of the effluent gas is recycled to sustain fluidization.
- 15. The process of claim 11 where dry air or nitrogen is added to the nitrogen dioxide gas to sustain fluidization.
- 16. The process of claim 11 where the effluent gas is recovered.
- 17. The process of claim 11 wherein each bed has a depth in the range of from about 12 inches to about four feet.
- 18. The process of claim 11 wherein the beds are in a single vessel vertically arranged such that particulate material from one bed flows into a lower bed and gas exiting from a lower bed flows through a higher bed.
- 19. The process of claim 11 wherein the beds are vertically arranged such that particulates flow downwardly counter currently to the fluidizing gas flowing upwardly and particulates with the highest chloride, sulfate, and oxide content are contacted with gas having the lowest nitrogen dioxide content.
- 20. The process of claim 11 wherein the particulates are potassium chloride.
- 21. The process of claim 11 wherein the particulates are calcium sulfate.
- 22. The process of claim 11 wherein the particulates are maintained in an aqueous slurry.
- 23. The process of claim 22 wherein the slurry contains up to 70% by weight water.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is a continuation-in-part to application Ser. No. 09/100,994 filed Jun. 28, 1998.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09100994 |
Jun 1998 |
US |
Child |
10000412 |
Nov 2001 |
US |