Claims
- 1. A method of obtaining a purified sodium bicarbonate comprising:
utilizing a sodium carbonate containing effluent waste-water stream from a monohydrate sodium carbonate production process as a feed stream in a sodium bicarbonate production process, wherein said monohydrate sodium carbonate production process utilizes sodium carbonate input from trona ore, and wherein the said monohydrate sodium carbonate production process produces a purge stream containing at least about 20% and typically 30% sodium carbonate by weight.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said effluent waste water stream is used as a feed from which is first extracted sodium carbonate decahydrate and said sodium carbonate decahydrate is used as a feed stream for said sodium bicarbonate production process.
- 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said sodium bicarbonate production process also produces a waste-water effluent stream, and wherein said sodium carbonate decahydrate extraction also produces a waste-water effluent stream, and wherein the total of effluent waste-water streams from the production of sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate decahydrate is less than the amount of the effluent steam from the said sodium carbonate production facility.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said sodium bicarbonate is of greater purity than sodium bicarbonate produced by a non-waste-water effluent stream sodium bicarbonate production process.
- 5. A method of increasing the production of sodium bicarbonate and/or sodium carbonate recovered per unit of trona ore mined comprising:
a) Mining trona ore and utilizing a monohydrate process to convert said trona ore into sodium carbonate (1) with concomitant production of a first waste-water effluent stream containing a substantial percentage of sodium carbonate and (2); converting said sodium carbonate in said first waste water effluent stream into sodium bicarbonate.
- 6. A high purity sodium bicarbonate resulting from the process of claim 5, wherein said high purity is at least as great as that produced from a non-waste-water effluent sodium bicarbonate production process.
- 7. A method of reducing waste-water effluent stream produced during the conversion of trona ore into sodium bicarbonate comprising:
first converting said solution-mined trona according to a monohydrate process into sodium carbonate with the concomitant production of a first waste-water effluent stream containing sodium carbonate; and utilizing said waste-water effluent as a feed stream for a process of converting sodium carbonate into sodium carbonate decahydrate with the concomitant production of a first downstream waste-water effluent stream, and converting said sodium carbonate decahydrate to sodium bicarbonate with the concomitant production of a second downstream waste-water effluent stream, whereby the total amount of effluent waste-water in the two aforesaid downstream waste water effluent streams is less than the amount of the effluent waste water in the said first waste water effluent stream.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/910,540, filed Jul. 20, 2001, and the benefit of which is here claimed.
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09910540 |
Jul 2001 |
US |
Child |
10674227 |
Sep 2003 |
US |