Process for continuous chemical separation

A process for removing a solute from a fluid process stream containing said solute and containing a solvent. The process comprises (a) continuously contacting the process stream with a portion of a rotating mass of sorbent material at a temperature that allows sorption of the solute by the sorbent material to form a solute-adsorbed portion of sorbent material; (b) continuously rotating the mass of sorbent material; (c) raising the temperature of the solute-adsorbed and rotated portion of sorbent material by contacting said portion with an eluant stream having a temperature that allows release of the solute to form an eluted portion of sorbent material; (d) cooling the further rotated and eluted portion with a cooling stream to form a regenerated portion of sorbent material; simultaneously with steps ad collecting product stream containing solvent, and continuously repeating the above-named steps.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following drawings form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present invention. The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a zeolite core comprised of assembled solid individual zeolite elements.

FIG. 2 depicts a rotating core with process, elution, and cooling streams flowing through the core parallel to the axis of rotation.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a housing or enclosure for the embodiment of FIG.

2.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a cylindrical zeolite core comprised of assembled solid individual zeolite elements attached to an inner cylinder and contained by an outer cylinder.

FIG. 5 depicts the rotating core for the embodiment of FIG. 4 with process, elution, and cooling streams flowing through the core parallel to the axis of rotation.

FIG. 6 is a graph depicting data presented in Table 1 and Table 2. The horizontal line between 0.4 and 0.5 represents the sodium concentration in synthetic seawater.

FIG. 7 depicts a setup of the column test producing the data in Table 3 and Table 4.

FIG. 8 is a graph depicting data presented in Table 3.

FIG. 9 is a graph depicting data presented in Table 4.

1. A process for removing a solute from a liquid process stream containing said solute and containing a solvent, comprising:

2. The process of claim 1 wherein said process stream comprises salt water, said solute comprises sodium ions, and said solvent is water.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein said sorbent material is comprised of solid zeolite elements assembled into a core with channels formed by spacing between the elements.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein the cooling stream is dried air.

5. A process for removing a solute from a liquid process stream containing said solute and containing a solvent, comprising:

6. The process of claim 5 wherein said process stream comprises salt water, said solute comprises sodium ions, and said solvent is water.

7. The process of claim 5 wherein said cooling stream is dried air.

8. A chemical separation process, comprising:

9. A process for removing a solute from a liquid process stream containing said solute and containing a solvent, comprising:

10. A process for removing a solute from a liquid process stream containing said solute and containing a solvent, comprising: