Abstracts of Recent Patents

Air Filtration and Drying System for Waterborne

Paint

In WP9737779Optimum Air Filtration describes an auto- mated air filtration and dry- ing system including an energy and environmental management system for controlling, monitoring and supervising the operation and performance of the air filtration and drying system, a capture apparatus for cap- turing and controlling over- spray, and a drying /curing control module for rapidly drying a painted article using a continuously filtered and dehumidified flow of recycled air. Inventor: Fred G. Scheufler, Richard D. Scheufler and William H. Bayard. Date of Publication: 9 October 1997.

Drinking Water Filtration System

In WP9747960 Puraq Water Systems Inc., describes a process and apparatus for producing purified drinking water from surface or ground fresh water sources using no chemical pre-treat- ment or coagulants, by usage of a positively- charged filtration media to attract the typically nega- tively-charged suspended solids present in the water source. The process, which can be portable, includes a filtration system having a fil- tration/recirculation/back- wash component and a dis- infection step. The process further includes a system controller which receives electrical signals from float controls to control the filtra- tion, recirculation, and back- wash steps. This process produces drinking water which meets or exceeds the

guidelines set by the World Health Organization for tur- bidity and microbiological content. Inventors:Robert E. Baumann and Lee Rozelle. Date of Publication: 13 November 1997.

Liquid and Gas Purification and Filtration

In WP9743028 Axholme Resources Ltd describes a material comprising a base formed substantially of cellu- lose fibres onto which is adsorbed a composition comprising one or more aliphatic carboxylic acids having hydrocarbon chains consisting of 8 to 20 carbon atoms, and a filter material comprising a matrix in which is dispersed a granular for- mulation of this material. The material can be used to adsorb hydrocarbon pollu- tants, such as oil spills, and the filter material can be used to adsorb such pollu- tants from a fluid stream. Inventor: Andrew B. Haynes. Date of Publication: 20 November 1997.

Crossflow Filtration Process for Separating

Organic Compounds

In EP0804960 Degussa Aktiengesellschaft describes a process for separating water-soluble organic com- pounds from an aqueous solution. The process involves adsorbing a fraction of the compounds on a finely divided inorganic solid adsorbent and separating the loaded adsorbent by cross-flow filtration on a porous membrane. The process comprises (a) mix- ing the solution with adsor- bent to form a suspension; (b) passing the suspension over the top of the mem- brane; (c) establishing a pressure differential between the top and bottom of the membrane so that a filtrate depleted in adsorbed compounds flows through the membrane; (d) separat- ing unadsorbed compounds from the filtrate; and (e) recy- cling the suspension, option- ally after removing all or part of the adsorbent, to remove any residual unadsorbecl compounds. Inventors: Gunter

Weiss/and, GBrard Richet and Stefan Stockhammer. Date of Publication: 5 November 1997.

Separation of Dust Particles from Exhaust

Gases

In WP9740915 Gluscic describes a mechanical device for separating dust particles from exhaust gases under conditions of high temperature and high mois- ture. The device enables the recycling of the separated dust and operates on the principle of conducting the medium through a centrifu- gal field which causes the radial exhausting of dust particles. The carrying medi- um along with the dust parti- cles axially enters a rotating cylinder through a feed tube. The cylinder is divided into many sections with shovels. The forced rotation of the medium in the cylinder caus- es the settling of the dust particles onto the cylinder wall. The ratio between the rotor length, its cross section and the medium flow defines the particle stay duration in the centrifugal field. The effectiveness of the filtration is conditioned by the time of stay. The cleaned medium is conducted from the mid cylinder part into the outlet tube. The separated parti- cles are conducted along the cylinder wall into the outlet tube for exhausting and recycling the unwanted dust. The rotor for the dust particle separation can be construct- ed as a cylinder or a cone. Inventor: lztok Potrc, Gluscic. Date of Publication: 6 November 1997.

A Process for Producing Meltblown Polyolefin

Fibres for Mechanical Filtration

In WP97434 70 Web Dynamics Ltd describes a process for producing melt- blown polyolefin fibres hav- ing an effective diameter of less than 5 microns, com- prising providing a poly- olefin having a melt flow index of at least 1000, mix- ing a fluorocarbon with the polyolefin in order to increase the melt flow index

of the polyolefin to at least 2000, and meltblowing the polyolefin with the fluorocar- bon in order to produce the meltblown polyolefin fibres. The polyolefin being such that during the meltblowing the fluorocarbon is able to migrate to the surface of the formed polyolefin fibres without the need for a sepa- rate annealing step. Inventor: Timothy J. Woodbridge and Roland A. Griffin. Date of Publication: 20 November 1997.

Ultra-Filtration Vacuum System

In WP9739818 Miracle Marketing Corporation describes a system for extracting small particulate dust from air using a two- stage air handling system with a particulate entrap- ment fluid in the two stages, and a solid cartridge filter medium. The first stage has a cyclone for removing large debris and the second stage has a dispersion chamber nestled inside the top of the first stage wherein air is injected directly into the liquid filter medium through spiral vanes con- toured such that the surface of the swirling fluid is made to tumble due to the cas- cading action. A third stage has a mechanical medium filtration system provided to remove fine particulate mat- ter. Inventors: Michael J. Edgington and Guy M. Hatch. Date of Publication: 10 October 1997.

Process for l-tydrogen Fluoride Separation

In WP9743208 Allied Signai Inc., describes a method for separating hydrogen fluoride from a chemical mixture by contacting the mixture to a hydrogen fiuoride binder. The separated hydrogen flu- oride may be recovered from the hydrogen fluoride binder. The binder is a synthetic water-soluble polymer, preferably sodium polyacry- late. inventors: Hang Pham, Charles Redmon, Rajiv Singh, Robert Pratt, Jeffrey McKown and Mathew Lucy Date of Publication: 20 November 1997.