APPARATUS AND PROCESS TO HYDROTHERMALLY MODIFY SLURRIED SILICATE MATERIALS

摘要

This invention is an efficacious combination of a reactor system and solution that makes possible a process to treat slurried materials, especially clays, and produce characteristics in the materials that are both highly uniform and ideal for specific applications as needed by the user. This process modifies the properties of a slurried material by forcing a solution from a solution reservoir through the slurried material which is suspended in a reactor between two filter plates with a pore size small enough to allow the solution to flow through the reactor while retaining the desired particles of the slurried material. The internal temperature of the reactor is controlled to produce the desired reaction and rate between the solution and the slurried material. The outflow of the solution from the reactor is controlled to regulate the pressure in the reactor relative to the reactor's internal temperature. This process can be used to remove quartz and other silica minerals from materials. It can also be used to produce illitic clays or charge modified clays. The process is adaptable to either batch or continuous operation with either small or large quantities of materials.