摘要 |
<p>A method and apparatus is provided for removing large volumes of contaminants or for recovering valuable minerals present in trace amounts or greater quantities by ion exchange treatment of phosphoric acid liquids or the like as they flow through a resin bed wherein ions in the liquid are sorbed into the resin by an ion exchange mechanism. The resin bed is folded, moving bed which exhibits all of the advantages of a packed ion exchange resin bed. Laminar flows are developed at times in the moving bed system, while the moving bed used is of a "folded" type having a maximum height approximately one-third that of conventional, unfolded countercurrent units. The ion exchange treatment occurs within a loading vessel resin bed, the beads in the feed portion of which become exhausted and sequentially move out of the loading vessel for subsequent regeneration and rinsing, followed by eventual return to the loading vessel.</p> |