Continuous production of silica via ion exchange

摘要

A continuous process for the conversion of sodium silicate to silicic acid, wherein a moving bed of a protonated ion exchange resin is contacted with an inlet stream of sodium silicate to provide an outlet stream of silicic acid. The outlet stream of silicic acid produced thereby can be processed into a variety of silica products. The outlet moving bed of spent sodium-enriched ion-exchange resin is continuously regenerated into protonated ion-exchange resin by contacting the spent resin with an inlet stream of acid of sufficient strength to exchange the sodium ions in the spent resin with a proton. The regenerated protonated ion-exchange resin is continuously recycled back into the sodium silicate stream for further production of silicic acid.