Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
3_J~ I
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PUNTS
This invention relates in part to my Canadian Patents Nos.
1,014,932 issued August 2, 1977, No. 1,115j539 issued January 5,
1983, and my US. Patent No. 4,222,7~7 issued September 16, 1980.
The present invention does not conflict with the above patents
as it deals with various aspects of the multi-stage development,
production and utilization of progressively improved products
from inert coal material for use in pollutant treatment, product
processing and nitrogenous product production. While my Canadian
10 Patent No. 1,014,932 describes a method of producing an active
form of natural carbon from a wide range of coal materials, and
the carbon produced by the method of the present invention is
specific in that it produces a cleansed coal-carbon from clue
coal materials. My Canadian Patent No. 1,152,349 provides a
method of restructuring depleted or eroded soils by the
application of liquefied soil amending slurries. While my U.S.A.
Patent No. 4~222f787 provides an improved asphalt mixture, for
the removal and long term storage of harmful pollutants.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive
20 property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows
A method of producing multi-stage sorptive, activating,
and application Al, treatment and processing media from selected
inert coal material and organic matter, having wide
carbon/nitrogen ratios and self actuated expansive surface areas
and products and by-products produced by practicing the method
.
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It is well known, that we fertilize the fields mainly by
applying nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil.
actually plants need a much more varied diet than that. They
normally get all the additional nutrients they need out of the
soil. But we cannot continue to do this without giving something
back to the soil in return. It has been found that the ratio of
carbon to nitrogen in the soils indicates the extent of
decomposition and the nature of organic matter contained in them.
"A wide carbon/nitrogen ratio is indicative of a fertile soil;
while a narrow carbon/nitrogen ratio suggests a poor soil."
The present Habor-Bosch method of manufacturing nitrogen
fertilizer is remarkably crude. By applying enormous
temperatures and atmospheric pressures with the aid of suitable
catalysts atmospheric nitrogen is reduced, combined with
hydrogen to form ammonia, from which various nitrogen dependent
compounds including plastics are made. While, in nature, soil-
living micro-organisms carry out the same process at normal soil
temperatures. Worldwide, this natural process provides 70 to 90
per cent of all fixed nitrogen: much of the rice crop in the Far
20 East is almost exclusively fertilized by blue green algae living
on the soil surface. The particular interest in blue green algae
lies in the fact that the algae live in the fronds of the water
fern, on the soil surface, and provides the fern with ammonia
and in return gets carbon compounds necessary for its growth. It
has been observed that when peat, lignite and bituminous coal
is mixed with soil in a very finely ground condition, they are
slowly oxidized and in this process the natural fixation of
Sue
nitrogen occurs. Furthermore, it has also been observed that the
amount of nitrogen fixed on the soil surface is greater in
sunlight than in the dark. The growing of wheat and rice has been
found to have been benefited by the addition of finely ground
lignite, or bituminous coal together with organic matter to the
soil after planting or seeding. The addition of said coal/organic
mixture to the soil is seen to add a more effective type of
carbonaceous nitrogenous-manure and minerals needed for plant
growth thereto. Again, it has been found that:
(1) Ammonium sulfite and ammonium phosphate lose the
larger portion of their nitrogen content as nitrogen gas even in
two months after their addition to the soil. While with ammonium
nitrate, ammonium tart rate, ammonium oxalate and ammonium
citrate, urea, and hippuric acid the 105s is less within the same
period.
(2) With nitrogen-rich compounds having a carbon/nitrogen
ratio of less than 10, small quantities of humus are added to the
soil and there is rapid loss of nitrogen in the gaseous state
although they are quick acting manures.
zoo (3) With organic plant materials, farmyard manures, kidding,
straw etc., with carbon/nitrogen ratios greater than 10 , when
added to the soil, fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and humus
formation tykes place, and the addition of humus is much greater
than when such substances are added after composing them
elsewhere. The greater the carbon/nitrogen ratio of the starting
material the greater is the nitrogen fixation and increase in
humus. This is the chief source of soil nitrogen.
(4) The greater the fixation of nitrogen and humus Formation
in the soil, the greater is the residual effect of a manure.
(5) lumps liberates nitrates more slowly than ammonium salts
and other quick acting manures and benefits the crop for a longer
period. This is why the nitrogen status of a soil is not improved
without the addition of carbon compounds.
(6) Peat lignite, brown coal, and bituminous coals have
higher carbon/nitrogen ratios than normal soils. The higher -the
10 rank of coal, the greater is the carbon/nitrogen ratio, except
lignite which usually contains less nitrogen than bituminous coal
(7) Considerable quantities of humus are present in peat,
lignite and bituminous coal. These materials improve crop ion by
their slow liberation of nitrate and fixation of atmospheric
nitrogen. These are also beneficial to alkaline soils.
(8) The same elements which are present in plants are also
present in coal.
The removal of carbon from the atmosphere is brought about by
-the utilization of carbon dioxide in weathering rocks, or by
20 photosynthesis where carbon is taken in and oxygen is liberated .
This removal of carbon from the atmosphere is compensated for by
the processes of decay, combustion and animal respiration which
are continually occurring. The decay process involves the
liberation of carbon and hydrogen as carbon dioxide, methane,
~2~'7~B
water,etc. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen in soils indicates the
extent of decomposition and the nature of organic matter
contained in them. As was aforementioned, a wide carbon nitrogen
ratio is indicative of a fertile soil; a narrow ratio suggests a
poor soil. Therefore, if a suitable coal and organic mixture
were available having predetermined carbon/nitrogen
characteristics similar to a greater extent than those contained
in the aforementioned unbalanced soils, the addition of a coal
and organic matter mixture in finely ground form, to the extent
10 that said soils were found to be deficient in these elements,
would bring said unbalanced soils into balance as fertile soils.
The said fine particulate materials of said coal and organic
matter mixture when applied to or upon the aforementioned well
balanced fertile soils having wide carbon-nitrogen ratios could
serve as natural miniature ammonia "factories" within or upon
the soil, so that if they became available at a reasonable
increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantages
of using a coal-organic matter mixture as the effective ammonia
producing medium as opposed to ammonia produced artificially by
20 the aforementioned Habor-Bosch process superior natural nitrogen
nitrogen fertilizer products and other nitrogen dependent
compounds including plastics would be produced at a
considerable savings over conventional ammonia-producing methods.
Fertilizing materials which are most commonly used in broad
applications, such as (gardens, small holdings, horticulture,
agriculture, and silver culture) are synthetic chemical or
organic fertilizers. While the former may be effective in
6'74~
providing quick plant growth and increased crop production by the
force feeding of plants, they are considerably more expensive to
manufacture, handle and use. In many instances, organic
fertilizer may be chosen to fertilize a large area instead of
synthetic chemical fertilizer even though its anticipated crop
producing capability may be somewhat smaller. While synthetic
chemical fertilizers give quicker response, and produce a greater
amount of crops, they suffer from the disadvantage in that they
may alter the structural integrity of a soil and the
10 multiplicity of beneficial processes going on there within, the
soil may be degraded, depleted or depressed in various ways
dependent on the environmental conditions existing in the soils
under treatment. In those areas where the isle has been eroded
and has lost its normal content of organic matter and clay the
soils will not hold water and thus will tend to become
decertified and non-productive. In those areas which have been
subjected to force feeding of the soil to increase crop
production the land becomes more and more dependent each year on
the application of increasing amounts of synthetic chemical
20 fertilizers until the soil reaches a state when it will no longer
grow or support the growth of crops, and is usually abandoned.
In the cases referred to above, the degradation of the soil is
due to the exhaustion by depletion of the residual plant growth
component parts including mature humus, fresh organic humus-
making materials, available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and
trace minerals making up the soil structure. If this depletion
could be amended and a material were to become available which
4~3
could correct this soil condition, and at the same time provide a
favorable plant growth environment upon the soil surface similar
to that provided by the aforementioned blue green algae whereby
nitrogen from the air is fixed by bacteria living upon the soil
surface, and the ammonia fertilizer production therefrom were to
be increased sufficiently by a coal-based oxidation-composting
process using an improved coal-based medium, at a reasonable
increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantages
of using a coal-based and/or organic based ammonia producing
10 system as opposed to the use of synthetic chemical fertilizer
system a superior natural fertilizing material would be produced
at a considerable savings over synthetic chemical fertilizers.
y the same token, the treatment of liquid organic materials
such as domestic sewage, combined domestic and industrial
sewage, as well as agricultural, animal and manufacturing wastes
of organic origin where most all have wide carbon/nitrogen ratios
consists essentially of the removal and disposal of solid
materials from incoming raw sewage. A major portion of the finer
solid material is removed by passing the sewage through a
20 container where the flow rate is sufficiently low to Kermit a
small fraction of the finer solids to settle out into what is
known as a sludge. The finer solids materials of these various
types of sewage and consequently the aforementioned sludge are
largely organic substances that are particularly susceptible to
putrefaction. If permitted to remain static for an extended
period such sludge undergoes organic attack known as acid
digestion and forms what is known as a supernatant liquid which
Tao
has a particularly offensive odor.
In the cases referred to above, the degradation of organic
matter and its conversion into putrescent matter is due primarily
to the breakdown of the floating, suspended, dissolved or
dispersed organic substances in said organic sewage. If this
degradation process were to be speeded up sufficiently by
controlled biotechnological processes involving a coal-based
oxidation-composting process using an improved type of self no-
generating treatment medium without the production of offensive
10 odors, and the treatment effectiveness of the coal treatment
medium were to equal or surpass that of a conventional sewage
treatment system, and commercial quantities of ammonia nitrogen
were to be produced, collected and concentrated as a nitrogen-
rich effluent by-product therefrom, a safe and superior treated
tertiary-quality effluent could Joe produced which would result in
turning high cost municipal sewage treatment systems into
valuable and potentially profitable new municipal industries.
Similarly, methods of collecting, treating and carrying water
have traditionally proved inadequate due to the polluted nature
20 of our water caused by world pollution which have contaminated
our sources of water even in our northern lakes and waterways.
Demands for our northern waters to be brought on tap have been
made of our provincial and federal government s. Most all of our
waters of which we own 30 per cent of the world's total
freshwater supply, issue from swampy areas and thus contain
organic pollutants from the areas feeding the water stream, as
well as wind-carried pollutants from Canada, the United States
I 4~3
and Europe. It is evident therefore that any waters originating
from any of our Northern freshwater sources are polluted before
they start their journey south, and consequently will become more
so, when they are diverted from their natural channels and
conducted down through Canada s industrial heartland-areas and
perhaps south down to, and through the waterwater-short areas in
the United States and Mexico. It is evident therefore that before
these waters can be utilized for potable water or other less
sensitive applications, that they will need to be cleansed of
said pollutants prior to, during and subsequent to, their
utilization by potential users. Since the major portion of the
pollutant load in the water will be of organic origin, collected
from the swampy areas from which the stream originated, as well
as from lesser streams flowing into the larger waterway and also
from the organic and industrial type pollutants seeping from
farms, sewage or combined sewage generated from populated areas
all along the natural or artificial route until it reaches its
potential user, the availability of a treatment medium having an
an affinity for a wide range of widely diverse pollutants, which
will spontaneously compost organic substances on contact in an
odour-free manner, adsorb toxic substances and heavy metal
contaminants to an extremely high degree, prevent the
development of harmful interaction between differing chemicals
discharged therein and which can be put in suspension in said
water will negate the possibility of contamination resulting
from the use of the water by the eventual user, user applications
or the environment.
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In the cases referred -to above, the contamination of the
water is due to the natural accumulation of swamp debris and
other pollutants which have originated from wind-carried
pollutant-sources issuing from Canadian, United States Russian
and European manufacturing activities, and are collected therein
in its long passage to potential areas of utilization. The
treatment of flowing water in this instance is not an easy one,
as the waters as well as their pollutant content are added to in
their journey by an ever-increasing amount and variety of exotic
10 pollutants as they wind their way over some hundreds and perhaps
thousands of miles to an area of potential use. If the pollutant
content could be reduced sufficiently by the addition of a
suitable treatment medium thereto, so that were to arrive at
their destination in an acceptable condition, at a reasonable
increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantages
of using a treated water as opposed to, for example, water from a
sea-water desalination plant, a superior water would ox produced
at a considerable savings over desalinated sea-water.
Further-more, for many -thousands of years streams and their
20 waterway-network have been cleansed of the pollutant-load carried
thereby in a natural way, that is, by passing the polluted
waters over and through the pebbles and stones normally found in
the bed of the stream. In such streams beneficial bacteria work
to the extent that food is available to them from the water, and
form a coating known as a bacterial slime over the pebbles and
stones forming the bed of said stream in order to provide a
working base from which beneficial bacteria are able -to cleanse
I
the pollutant load in the process. Many materials have been
suggested and utilized to serve as substitute waste water
treatment media in place of pebbles and stones, and include
plastic, crushed rock, and hard anthracite coal. These treatment
media were all selected on the basis of their density,
insolubility, hardness, resistance to abrasion and filtering
ability, their suitability in serving as bacterial working areas
in the deposition of the aforesaid bacterial slimes thereon, and
their subsequent utilization in the removal of pollutants from
10 the waters of pollutant-carrying streams. In essence, therefore,
suitable waste water treatment media are still being selected for
use in treating waste water of whatever strength or content)
mainly on the basis of their filtering qualities and their
adsorptive capacity is permanently limited by reason of their
solidity to their external, visual outer surface areas. The only
noticeable change in conventional practice is to use fixed plastic
treatment media in a mechanized version. Wherein -the plastic
media is rotated within a drum-type device with additional
aeration for use by bacteria in the degradation process. The
20 main disadvantage with the use of the aforementioned solid type
of treatment medium with a fixed sorptive surface area, is that
when the available sorptive surface area has reached its capacity
and can no longer hold an increased amount of the available
bacterial and contaminant load, the medium becomes overloaded
with the distinct possibility that these surplus materials will
slough off the plastic medium in an untreated state which may
result in widespread contamination of the surrounding area.
In the cases zeroed to above, the difficulty entreating
polluted waters is due to the inability of conventional treatment
systems and treatment media used therewith to cope with the
greater contaminant loads and the growing complexity of the
contaminants carried therein. It is evident that effective
treatment by conventional methods is most difficult, and it is
felt that if a solution to the problem is not found soon, that
the existing problems may increase manifold. Therefore, if a
material were to become available which could serve to complement
10 conventional waste water treatment systems so that they could
become more treatment-effective and serve to help prevent certain
difficult -treatment situations from developing, at a reasonable
increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantage of
using a multiple-purpose coal-based treatment medium to
complement said conventional treatment systems, a superior type
of waste water treatment system and treatment medium to be used
therewith would become available and be produced at a
considerable savings in treatment costs.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
In the present invention, biotechnological methods of
utilizing multiple purpose coal-based media are disclosed to
provide by improved oxidative-composting and adsorptive processes
new and novel products and by-products having widely diversified
treatment, application Al and processing potential. Which
comprises crushing and screening a clue type of selected non-
piety coal material having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above
and a ragged, irregular and interlocking type of fracture
1 2
aye
on breaking or crushing (piety meaning, coal materials that
are formed in loosely held flat layers which are subject to early
breakdown by slacking), and subjecting said coal materials to at
least one cycle of wetting and drying, followed by a thorough
leaching by one, or a combination of materials chosen from the
group consisting of hot or cold water, hot or cold air, steam, an
acid or a base. And thereafter, crushing and screening said coal
materials and selected non-toxic organic matter having wide
carbon/nitrogen ratios, to produce therefrom as separate
10 quantities thereof, a fine particulate expanded and leached coal-
based product and a fine particulate organic material, wherein
said fine particulate expanded and leached coal-based product and
said fine particulate organic-matter product are characterized by
having a maximum particle diameter passing through a 200 mesh
size screen and a larger sized expanded and leached coal-based
product having a particle diameter approximating 3/4 of an inch.
Either or both of said fine particulate products may be added to
a soil surface or as an intermix therewith. When the mixture is
applied to said soil surface a process of nitrogen fixation takes
20 place aided in part by the oxidation of the coal particle and the
composing of the organic matter and in the combined process with
the aid of air, soil and water bacteria as well as sunlight. The
amount amount of nitrogen fixed in the light is double that fixed
in the dark. In a first embodiment of the present invention,
a fertilizer mixture having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios suitable
for fertilizing small or large areas of unbalanced soils (meaning
soils having a low carbon/nitrogen ratio or below 10) are added
to the soils either as an intermix therewith or as a surface
7~3
application. When the mixture is added as a surface application
ills applied to the soil to a depth of millimeters preferably
after the soil is planted or seeded. When added as a soil
amendment to unbalanced poor soils (meaning, soils having a
carbon/nitrogen ratio of below 10), said mixture is intermixed
with said unbalanced soil in the proportion found necessary to
bring said poor soil up to that of a balanced or fertile soil
above the ratio of 10. The coal materials are selected from the
group of coals having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio and a non-
10 piety structure consisting of thermal and metallurgical coals
and wastes thereof, including lignite coal, near coal, clue
coal, waste coal, fly ash, oxidized coal, leonardite or any coal-
associated materials. And the organic materials are chosen from
the group consisting of non-toxic products or wastes thereof
having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above 10 including garden,
agricultural, forestry, sewage, manufacturing, food, animal,
dairy, poultry or most any type of non-toxic organic material or
substance meeting the said required criteria. The second
embodiment of the present invention, results in the provision of
20 a coal-based composing, filtration-adsorption bed wherein said
3/4 inch expanded and leached coal based product is utilized as
the treatment, processing and ammonia manufacturing medium
therein. In this process liquid polluted streams including
organic substances are passed through shallow confined beds of
said coal-based medium wherein said organic matter is
spontaneously composed in an odour-free manner, on contact with
said coal medium, It is felt that, because a greater amount of
ammonia nitrogen is found in treated effluent issuing from the
1 4
~2~i7~8
treatment beds than could have been generated from the oxidation
of either the coal or organic carbons, that a process of
atmospheric nitrogen fixation is going on between said a-r we
breathe, the coal medium and the organic liquids passing
there through, aided by sunlight. The coal-based treatment beds
are formed upon a solid slightly sloped base, of sufficient
length to assure full treatment , and to a depth of not more than
about 1 foot. It has been found, for example, that an
installation measuring 60ft by oft with a center divider board to
lo increase the length of flow area to 120ft containing about 6 tons
of said coal-based treatment medium will handle the septic tank
effluent from a very large household for over ten years without
replacing the treatment medium, and an installation 250ft by
loot containing about 250 tons of said coal-based treatment
medium placed to a depth of 12 inches would suffice for the
treatment of sewage effluents from a town of about ten thousand
people over a period of about ten years without replacement of
the treatment medium used therein. The treatment medium used in
said treatment installations has an expansive surface area and
20 self-cleansing capillary sections . The expansive process is
activated by the repeated wetting and drying cycles it
experiences in its every-day use in whatever application is in
process. For example, the coal particle expands on wetting and
fractures upon drying, thus opening up newly formed potentially
25active adsorptive surface areas, further when the waters are
caused to flow through the coal medium during use, the presently
sealed labyrinthian capillary network therein with its vast
adsorptive potential is cleansed, reactivated suitable for use.
BRIEF Description OF TOE DRAWINGS
Fig. l. is a flow diagram showing the various facets of the
process for producing fine particulate nitrogenous manure media
of the first embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2. is a flow diagram showing the various facets of the
process for producing ammonia nitrogen from low Selfware content
coal, organic matter and soils having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios
of the second embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3. is a flow diagram showing the various facets for
10 producing progressively expanding external and internal sorptive
surface areas and cleansed capillary sections from clue coals of
the third embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4. is a flow diagram showing the various facets for
producing semi-processed, and continuously processing carbon-humus
media prior to, during and subsequent to the multiple stage
processing and marketing strategy of said fourth embodiment of
the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In practicing the present invention and with reference to Fig.
20 l. Most coal materials, organic materials and soils having wide
carbon/nitrogen ratios may be used or be beneficially influenced
by its use. Such coal materials or organic matter may have
little or no apparent commercial value for their BUT content
16
I ~2~7~8
but are especially useful to the present invention. Such coal
typically contains as much as 50~ by weight of non-combustible
material, including moisture, dirt and ash. Materials which have
been found acceptable for use in practicing the present invention
include all coal-associated materials, organic matter and soils
having hide carbon/nitrcgen relics above 10. Such as most thermal
and metallurgical coals and wastes thereof, lignite, bone coal,
coal shale, near coal, clue coal, coal wastes, fly ash,
oxidized coal and leonardite. end the organic matter may consist
10 of non-toxic organic matter having a wide carbon nitrogen ratio
above 10 chosen from the group consisting of garden produce or
wastes, forestry, horticulture, animal, agricultural, dairy,
food, manufacturing wastes or most any type of non-toxic organic
materials meeting the above criteria.
The coal material whose internal and external surface areas
are to be expanded and leached is crushed and screened to size,
the sizing resulting in a fine particulate coal material having a
maximum particle sizing passing through a 200 mesh size screen
(with no minimum diameter), and a larger sized coal material
20 having a minimum particle diameter sufficient to be retained on a
200 mesh size screen and a maximum particle diameter approximating
3/4 of an inch. The coal materials may be crushed and screened to
size prior to the wetting, drying and leaching process or
subsequent to these processes. Due to the difficulty in handling
the fine particulate coal material, i-t may be easier to process
and produce the expanded and leached coal material prior to
crushing and sizing the coal materials.
17
-
I
The following examples are illustrative of the invention but
are not intended to be limiting in any manner..
EXAMPLE l
In producing a nitrogenous manure for use in bringing soils
having a carbon/nitrogen ratio lower than lo or that indicative
of a poor soil, into balance, a mixture consisting of fine
particulate coal and fine particulate organic matter having wide
carbon/nitrogen ratios above lo which are indicative of a fertile
soil are produced by spreading suitable coal materials having a
10 wide carbon/nitrogen ratio one to three feet deep over a broad
confined area and sprinkle irrigating with water for a period of
time sufficient to at least moisten the lowermost coal
materials. The coal materials are then allowed to dry by exposure
to solar radiant energy, the process being repeated daily for a
period of seven days. At the end of seven days the coal
materials are flood irrigated so that all of the coal particles
are totally saturated with water, which is then drained and the
coal materials are allowed to completely dry. it this point, the
coal materials are crushed and screened to produce therefrom a
20 fine particulate coal material passing through a 200 mesh screen
and a larger sized coal particle having a maximum sizing
approximating I of an inch.
The coal materials resulting from the above processes are
added together with selected organic matter having similar wide
carbon/nitrogen ratios which has previously been ground to form
a fine particulate product, to form a fine particulate nitrogen
producing mixture. The mixture is added to poor soils (meaning
18
those soils having a carbon/nitrogen ratio lower than 10), to
bring the soils into balance with fertile soils known to have a
higher carbon/nitrogen of above 10. When the mixture is applied
to eroded or depleted soils it is added such that a depth
approximating 2 millimeters is achieved covering the whole area
being treated. It may be applied as an intermix with the present
soil or as a surface application thereto. When the mixture is
applied as an intermix with the soil the coal material portion of
the mixture immediately becomes the mature humus lacking in the
soil (because of the high percentage of mature coal-humus
in coals), and the organic matter becomes the fresh humus-making
material needed by the soil during its decomposition, to provide
plant growth nutrients to promote and sustain good crop
production. When said mixture is added to the soil it is best
provided as a surface application after the soil has been seeded.
In accordance with the method of the present invention, double
the amount of atmospheric nitrogen can be produced after fixation
upon the soil surface as compared with the amount fixed when
intermixed with soil in the dark. After subsequent harvesting of
20 the crop the remaining coal organic mixture on the soil surface
is turned over into the soil together with any crop residues left
after said harvesting, when they become an important new
source of residual mature humus and of potential humus.
1 9
48
EXAMPLE 2
In producing an improved composting-filtering medium having
strong multi-purpose nitrogen producing and pollutant adsorptive
capabilities for use as a long term waste water treatment medium,
a clue type inert raw coal material having a wide
carbon/nitrogen ratio and a ragged, irregular fracture on
breaking is utilized. The raw coal material is similar to that
used in Example 1, except that it is characterized by having a
maximum sizing approximating 3/4 of an inch. In practicing the
10 present invention said inert clue raw coal material is crushed
and screened to said 3/4 inch mesh size and then is subjected to
at least one cycle of wetting and drying followed by a thorough
leaching to remove said clay therefrom. A shallow slightly
inclined treatment bed is constructed having an impervious base
and sides, said bed having an inlet and outlet means with sides
of a sufficient height, width and length so that a sufficient
quantity of said coal-based treatment medium may be placed
therein so as to provide a depth of 12 inches over said base
greater depth does not provide greater pollutant removal) and
20 the quantity of said coal medium placed therein may range from 10
tons for a domestic installation, to about 250 tons for an
installation capable of handling 10,000 gallons of high strength
abutter liquid wastes daily (abutter liquid wastes are about
twenty times stronger than domestic sewage) or the equivalent of
domestic sewage wastes generated from a small town of 10,000
people. The coal-medium treatment beds may be utilized as a
composting-filtering' waste water treatment system for use in
the treatment of either domestic liquid wastes, industrial liquid
wastes or a mixture of both domestic and industrial liquid
wastes. If it is desired to remove organic pollutant materials
in a first stage of treatment from a polluted liquid stream,
said coal medium may be used to preferentially remove such
organic from said stream by spontaneously composing them on
contact with said coal-medium. This is done spontaneously as
said pollutant stream is passed there-through. If it is desired to
remove a mixture of said pollutants including said organic from
said pollutant stream, said pollutant-stream mixture is passed
trough said treatment bed wherein said coal medium will
effectively remove said organic materials by composing within
an unconfined meaning a first portion of an undivided treatment
bed) smaller first portion of the treatment bed as said pollutant
stream is passed there through in a first stage of the treatment
process. The remaining larger portion of said treatment area
within said treatment bed is utilized to provide an additional
higher degree of tertiary type of pollutant removal and final
controlled effluent polishing (meaning cleansing) to said stream.
It is evident that nitrogen produced by the slow oxidation of the
coal medium, organic composing, and atmospheric nitrogen
fixation by soil, air and water bacteria in the presence of light
will serve to concentrate and accumulate said nitrogen within
said effluent stream. This nitrogen-rich effluent stream may be
collected under controlled conditions and used as a valuable
feed stock material for nitrogen fertilizers, plastics or other
uses. Thus making the treatment of town sewage a profitable new
municipal industry instead of being a burden to tax-payers.
7~8
EXAMPLE 3
The third embodiment and Example off present invention
provides a new and novel method of processing hard compact raw
coal materials to make ox them multiple-purpose treatment and
processing media having a high degree of adsorptive ability which
is equal to, and in some instances superior to, that of a good
grade of commercial activated carbon. Such coal materials may
note chosen pharisees a filtering medium because of the closer
availability of conventional types of filtering media such as
10 gravel, stone or plastic. Many researchers have tested various
coal material to determine their suitability for use as
adsorbent, but as yet have not found a coal material in either
Canada or the U.S.A. with a sufficient high adsorptive capacity
for commercial application.
An example of the low regard in which coal is held can bison
in the following review:
"The Pollution Control Branch has reviewed and evaluated
fifteen major papers, including Prof. Coul-thard s work, concerned
with the use of coal for the removal of organic material,
zoo nutrients and heavy metals. The conclusions which were drawn
regarding the use of coal-based treatment processes are as
follows:
1. Coal beds will act as filters, physically removing
suspended matter from waste water, as will other
commercially available media such as gravel, plastic, eta
J I 8
2. Coal beds will also act as biological filters, with the
coal serving as the medium to support the biological
growth which removes dissolved organic from waste water
Similarly, other commercially available media will
provide surface area to support biological growth.
3. Coal itself does not adsorb or remove dissolved organic
or nutrients, such as nitrates or phosphates, to any
significant extent.
4. The analysis of two British Columbia Hat Creek and Union
Bay coals by standard adsorption tests indicated that
-the potential adsorptive capacity of these coals is much
lower than that of commercially available activated
carbons "
In none of the aforementioned test reports was the inventor
consulted or asked -to give his version of the relative
effectiveness of coal as a coal-based treatment medium as
opposed to the use of s-tone, gravel or plastic treatment media.
The conclusions given above are incorrect and are somewhat
misleading, as is seen in the following study:
0 1. While a coal medium will remove suspended matter from
waste water it does it primarily by means of a spontaneous
composing process aided by an expandable adsorptive
surface area. The other types of media such as stone,
gravel and plastic have a fixed or constant adsorptive
surface area and little if any, composing capability.
I
7'~3
2. The processed coal medium in the coal beds does not serve
primarily as a medium to support biological growth because
of the rapidity of the composing process in removing
suspended organic from said livid sewage effluents which
process occurs immediately on contact with the coal medium,
thus time does not permit for a noticeable build up of
biological growth on the coal medium. Thus the coal medium
is not similar to other forms of conventional media in
this regard. In observations of coal-based sewage treatment
installations, which have been in constant use for from
five to ten years no build up of biological growth has
ever been seen on the coal medium, used in the coal-based
sewage treatment beds.
3. Coal as a raw material does not adsorb or remove dissolved
organic or nutrients to any significant extent as freshly
mined materials, but -the processed coal medium produced
from most types of freshly mined coal materials, after
being processed according to the method of the present
invention has a dramatically increased adsorptive capacity.
I. The analysis of Hat Creek coal treatment medium by standard
adsorption tests after said expanding and leaching process
of the invention, using a hot water solvent, was equal to
and exceeded that of a commercial activated carbon used as
a control.
I
5. The capillaries of a coal medium after said expanding and
leaching process of the present invention have a larger diameter
than those of a commercial activated carbon and thus can reach
their full sorptive capacity in a shorter period of time.
Experimentally, it has been found that, coal media may have
reached its full sortpive capacity in one hour, while commercial
activated carbons may not reach their full sorptive capacity for
several days. Thus the choice of a coal medium for use in small
or larger scale treatment applications would provide, because of
10 its much lower initial cost, its sorptive speed and sorp-tive
capacity a more economical and effective medium for use in the
treatment of polluted waters than commercial activated carbons.
Furthermore, since the processing of the coal medium does not
involve the use of time, energy materials and capital intensive
procedures in its manufacture, which tends to limit the cost
effectiveness of commercial activated carbons, particularly in
those areas needing its benefits the most.
6. In most applications where commercial activated carbons are
used, the high initial cost can be justified only because the
20 activated carbon can be reactivated readily. In practice, because
of very fine size of the capillaries in commercial activated
carbons the capillaries become clogged more readily than those of
the coal-based medium and thus need to be reactivated frequently.
On the other hand the composing by the coal medium of the
organic in a polluted stream passed therewith and the
continuously expanding of the coal medium surface areas negate
the necessity of reactivating the coal medium.
The reason for the lack of adsorptive capacity in the
aforementioned 15 reports is that all the tests were done with
coal materials as mined, or raw coal materials. Evidence of this
is seen in the following exerts from studies done by Silves-ton
and Shannon at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. the
findings of which have been referred to in many of the
aforementioned 15 papers reviewed, and were presented at the
at the Colloquium of Coal and Coal Products, held at Quebec City,
September Thea, 1968.
10 Waterloo University:
"Coal materials were relieved in lump size. They were first
crushed in a chipmunk crusher, ground in a disk mill , sieved in
a shaker assembly into narrow particle-size ranges and stored
under distilled water until needed. The latter precaution was
necessary because adsorption capacity diminished on standing
apparently due to the slow oxidation of ground coal by air."
The following two excerpts from a Canadian manufacturing
plant and an American Research Institute shows the potential
treatment value inherent in the use flat Creek Coal Carbon as
20 opposed to the use of the more expensive commercial activated
carbons.
Canadian:
"A sample of effluent containing mercury residues was treated
and it was found that the level of mercury decreased from 13
Pam to 0.25 Pam This again compares very favorably with
other active carbons now used for this purpose and should be
26
iota
studied in detail to obtain saturation values.
Two series of tests were run in order to ascertain if the
activity of the carbon could be increased by artificial means
such as a washing process. The procedure adopted for washing the
coal material comprised a five minute preboiling step and
subsequent filtration. It was thought that -this process may open
up and expose, fresh surface upon which the adsorption may take
place.
The results are tabulated comparing the washed to the
unwashed coal materials as follows:
Potassium permanganate 2ml = 10ml of0.1N Ferrous Ammonium
Sulfite.
WASHED MATERIAL
Particle size Back Title 0.lN PHASE. Into. KMnO4cc KmnO4ml
_______ _____ __________~___________ _____________ _______
~20 10.0 10 I
~40 10 10 8.0
~60 64 25 12.20
-~80 7.0 25 23.60
~100 107 50 28.60
-~200 58 50 38.40
-200 2 900 900
27
UNUSED MATERIAL
Particle size Jack Title 0.lN PHASE. Innately. KMnO4cc KMnO4ml
_____________ _____________________ _________ ___ _______
~20 10.1 10 7.98
~40 9.8 10 8.09
I 68.0 25 11.40
-~80 7.2 25 23.56
~100 115 50 27.00
-~200 65 50 37.00
--200 245 100 51.00
It will be seen from the figures that similar results were
obtained for both materials except in the case of the -200 mesh
size washed material. Here it will be seen that a drastic
increase in adsorptive properties took place after washing not
experienced by the other mesh sizes photographs of slides No. 1
and 2, taken during microscopic examination of thin sections of
both materials , reveals that the active centers may possibly be
of such size , that grinding to less than 200 mesh size and
subsequent washing will make available the large majority of
these sites and hence account for the increased activity.
It was calculated -that -the finely ground washed material
adsorbed 19.2 grams or 14.2 times its own weight of potassium
permanganate. This compared extremely favorably with conventional
active carbons which appeared to reach a saturation point when
nine times its own weight of materials was adsorbed.
28
LO
HAT CREEK COAL TESTS
Conclusions
"The Hat Creek coal tested was found to have similar and in
certain cases, superior adsorption properties to conventional
active carbons previously evaluated. It is thought that with the
reduced manufacturing costs anticipated with this material that a
very wide range of applications may be sought where the cost
factor would otherwise render this mode of treatment impossible."
AMERICAN HUT CREEK COWL TESTS
10 McMinville Research Institute, McMinville, Oregon, U.S.A.
Conclusions
Organic Adsorption
"Only very preliminary studies have been carried out thus far
using phenol and nitrobenzine. Ten grams of neutral washed carbon
was treated with 10 grams of pure nitrobenzine and ten grams of
90% aqueous solution of phenol for one hour. By weighing the
carbon before end after exposure to the organic the following
results were obtained:
g of organic adsorbed/gram of carbon
Phenol 0.19
Nitrobenzine 0.16
These results compare favorably with the results of a study in
which phenol and nitrobenzine were adsorbed on a large area
commercial activated carbon. This activated carbon, which
possessed a surface area of l,200m go adsorbed 0.094 grams of
29
6';1~
phenol/gram of carbon and 0.22 grams of nitrobenzene/gram of
carbon. These results show that the natural (flat Creek) carbon
adsorption of these two organic is equal to that of a high grade
synthetic activated carbon.
In the present invention it will be seen that the method of
use and treatment of the processed coal medium used therewith
have little in common with the stone, gravel or plastic treatment
media used in the test reports outlined in the above letter-
report either in their physical characteristics or their
10 respective functional roles.
As an imitator of said constant types of treatment media a
coal medium should also have a constant adsorptive surface area
limited only to its outer surface area. But coal material being
structured supposedly from vegetative and animal matter has a
tremendous latent potential for providing additional adsorptive
surface areas there within. Coal is known to contain a
labyrinthian network of sealed capillary sections units
structure. Thus if this sealed micro megastructure capillary
network of the coal medium was to be opened up subsequent to said
20 expanding procedures, by said leaching process, a tremendous
latent potential adsorptive capacity would become available to
us. This new source of adsorptive sites would have would have
been provided -to us with a minimum effort on our part and at a
negligible increase in cost. In reality, a coal-based medium can
not only act as efficiently as media which have a constant
3
sly
sorptive surface area, when it is freshly mined, but in addition
has an automatically controlled self-actuated expansive system.
All the tests done in -the 15 reports recorded in the letter-
report were done with raw as mined coal materials which had not
been expanded and leached according to the method of the present
invention prior to use in the tests. So that it can be seen that
such a report could not be considered to be a responsible one,
and therefore cannot be used as being indicative of the true
functional ability of a coal medium that has been processed
according to the method of the present invention. It would be
abundantly clear to a competent researcher that comparing the
adsorptive capacity of a freshly mined raw coal material with
that of a commercial activated carbon, and trying to draw the
above responsible conclusions from the exercise, would normally
be unworthy of their efforts and would certainly no-t be an
acceptable research practice.
If the raw coal material as mined were to be used as a
treatment medium and were to be placed in a treatment bed exposed
to the elements, the rain would cause the coal material to swell
on wetting and to fracture on drying. This process would be
duplicated every time the bed was loaded and unloaded with a
water-based liquid (such as a liquid polluted effluent stream
similar to sewage or industrial liquid wastes) then the
expansive self-actuated method of the present invention comes
into practice. It is seen therefore that while all types of
treatment media may act similarly as filtering media at the
7~3
start, that only the coal medium can expand its available surface
areas with each successive cycle of wetting and drying actuated
by the subsequent loading and unloading of said treatment beds
with said said liquid effluent, thus making the medium
superior to other types of media having surface areas which are
constant and thus are limited to their outer surface area only.
The coal medium is seen to have continuously expanding surface
areas which are available for adsorptive processes. Added to
this is the fact that as aforementioned in the second embodiment
of the present invention, the multi million labyrinthian sealed
capillary sections are opened up and cleansed by said leaching as
the expansive process continues, and the expanding coal medium
does not slack (a coal-mining term indicating the complete
breakdown of coal material) during the expansion process because
of said irregular ragged characteristics of said fracturing
process of said non-platy coal medium, thus providing many
loosely-held mechanical bonds throughout the coal medium
structure capable of holding said expanding coal medium together
over a long period of time. It has been observed that the
aforementioned coal-based medium have been used continuously for
a period of over five to ten years without breakdown, and without
the replacement of the treatment medium. It will be evident
therefore the cost factor of liquid pollutant effluent treatment
could be reduced significantly by the use of an expansive
self-regenerative treatment medium, such as the processed coal
medium of the present invention, which has proved to have long
term treatment effectiveness.
32
7~3
It can be seen therefore, that contrary to published reports,
that coal material after processing can be as effective in use
as any presently known conventional types of treatment and
processing media, and furthermore, in some cases has proved to
be equal tough not more effective in use than commercial grades
of activated carbon. Thus it is considered that a coal medium is
a worthy and reliable successor and a improvement on said other
types of presently used and proposed treatment media.
It is also abundantly clear, that the presently used types
treatment and processing media have a constant (or fixed)
available adsorptive surface area which is limited to its visual
outer surface areas only, and thus are physically incapable of
expanding their adsorptive surface areas further. While the
surface areas of said coal medium can be expanded at will
to provide increased external and internal effective sorptive
surface areas many times greater than the visual outer surface
area of said coal medium, and whose expansion can be controlled
and regulated according to the frequency of the loading and
unloading of said polluted liquid effluent stream in said
treatment beds containing said coal treatment and processing
medium therein.
48
COAL-HUMUSB~SED,TREATMENT&PROCESSING MEDIA
For the purpose of the present invention, the clue coal
material after processing is defined as a multipurpose media
having a common identity in that it comprises an inseparable
mixture of a porous highly-adsorptive almost pyre coal-carbon
intimately combined with its original content of fully mature
humus to form a coal-humus based treatment and processing media.
When the original clue coal material is processed to this
condition with both the first and third portions utilizing a fine
10 particulate coal-carbon and fine particulate coal-humus as an
inseparable mixture thereof, and -the second portion having a
larger size coal material having said similar characteristics,
said inseparable coal-humus based material may be utilized in one
or more of three methods. In the first embodiment of the present
invention either said fine particulate coal-humus based material
or said fine particulate coal-humus based material intermixed
with fine particulate fresh organic, potential-humus-making
materials may be utilized. Said materials are used either alone
or in predetermined formulated combinations thereof, and are
20 intermixed with poor soils to bring said soils into balance
with fertile soils having a wide carbon nitrogen ratio of at
least 10, or said fine particulate coal-humus based media or
said combined coal-humus and fresh organic humus-making mixture
thereof are added to fertile soils requiring an additional source
of soil nitrogen as a nitrogenous form of manure, said
nitrogenous manure application being made as a soil-surface
addition after said soils have been seeded or planted. In the
34
second embodiment of the present invention, only said larger size
coal-humus based media is utilized. Said inseparable processed
larger size coal-humus based medium being positioned within a
coal-humus based waste water treatment bed to serve as a multi-
purpose treatment and processing medium, wherein either liquid
domestic waste water or combined domestic and industrial
waste water may be treated together in the same undivided bed
without the aid of any form of additional ancillary treatment
equipment whatsoever. Whereby, said organic matter content of
10 said polluted waste water is spontaneously removed on contact
with said coal-humus based medium by said biological composing
method of the present invention. Said composing of said
waste water organic being effected by said coal-humus based
medium without the production of offensive odors issuing
therefrom when said waste water level in said treatment bed is
maintained at a level below that of the-top of said coal-humus
based treatment medium therein. The remaining waste water-
pollutants including toxic or heavy metal contaminants are
effectively removed by said adsorptive coal-humus medium by a
20 new tertiary waste water treatment and effluent polishing
process as they are passed -through a larger remaining treatment
area of said undivided bed containing therein said adsorptive
coal-humus based treatment and processing medium. In the third
embodiment of the present invention a further treatment-
improvement may be provided both said fine particulate and said
larger size inseparable coal-humus based treatment and
processing media when they are separately prepared to serve in
more demanding multi-purpose application Al roles. Wherein said
larger size coal-humus based media it subjected to a ho-t or
boiling water leaching-bath with controlled agitation to further
remove any remaining pollutant-containing clay substances
therefrom. Then drying said coal-humus based media to provide an
initial expansion-fracturing step in the artificial
restructuring of said stable outer surface areas of said coal-
humus based medium and continuing said artificial fracturing
process to expose its external and internal surface areas and to
make said newly exposed areas available for future sorptive and
biological activities throughout the life-span of said larger
size coal-humus based media. Thus resulting in said progressive
development of said coal-humus based medium and the subsequent
leaching, capillary renewal, and surface activation as well as
the provision of additional new potential sorptive sites.
Wherein said coal-humus based medium is progressively
restructured by the self actuated method of the present
invention, wherein said coal-humus based medium particles are
caused to be expanded then fractured by said wetting and drying
cycles of said method of the present invention, and are regulated
20 by the frequency of said waste water loading and unloading into
said treatment beds. By this method said natural slacking
tendency of said coal-humus based medium is regulated, and is
controlled still further by the utilization of non-platy type
coal-humus material, being characterized by having a ragged and
irregular fracture on breaking. Such coal-humus material is
chosen for the purpose because it is able -to provide an
artificial mechanical hold on breaking similar to a conventional
type expansion joint. The main purpose of such a joint is to
~.~2~7~
provide a method whereby a loosely held interlocking joint such
as would be provided by said ragged or irregular fracturing of
said coal-humus based medium will result in holding said coal-
humus based medium together and thus prevent the early slacking
of said coal-humus based medium over an extended period of time.
Such a bond has served to prevent the slacking of a coal-humus
based medium used in the treatment of combined high strength
domestic and industrial type sewage waste water without failure
over periods of from five to ten years of continuous treatment
10 service, without the necessity of replacing the coal-humus based
treatment or processing medium. Wherein said new expansive
external and internal surface areas are made available to provide
a coal-humus based treatment and processing medium with self
actuated surface regenerative characteristics, having controlled
long term wear life, biologically activated, highly adsorptive,
with spontaneous biological composing capabilities, with
oxidative and nitrogen generating potential as well as the
natural fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. And subjecting said
fine particulate clue coal-humus based treatment and
20 processing media a further reducing procedure wherein said coal-
humus based media material is reground by a conventional
explosion-proof wet grinding process whereby hot or boiling water
is utilized in said grinding process as the wet grinding aid or
agent, to produce therefrom a quantity of finer size particulate
coal-humus based treatment or processing media materials in which
the major portion is in the lower-range category of sizings of
said reground materials passing through said -200 mesh screen.
Then subjecting said finer sized coal particles to a thorough
hot or boiling-water leaching bath with controlled agitation.
Whereby said regrinding and said ho-t water or boiling water
leaching of said fine particulate coal-humus based materials
results in the provision of a highly porous and adsorptive
coal carbon having a high degree of purity, intimately and
inseparably intermixed with its original content of said natural
coal-humus in an fully mature and immediately available form, as
well as its natural nitrogen content. The natural coal carbon,
therefore, has been processed without being exposed to open
10 flame, has not been treated with treatment chemicals and thus its
natural capillary tube structure is intact and has not been fused
as is customary in the manufacture of other forms of commercial
activated carbons. Since it is well known in the coal mining
industry that the capillaries in coal are of larger diameter than
those in commercial types of active carbons, they may have -the
ability to adsorb a much wider range of waste water pollutants
than conventional commercial activated carbons, and thus help
because of their said dual coal-carbon and mature humus content,
solve many of the current urgent pollution control and famine
relief problems common to peoples in many parts of the world. It
is expected, therefore, that the availability of a such a dual
type of natural treatment and processing media as is provided by
the practicing of the method of the present invention may serve
to provide an effective and more economical solution to said
problems we are now confronted with, than many schemes now being
presented or are under consideration.
38
The clue coal materials of the invention are unique in that
they originate in the Lotte Creek coal deposits in the Province of
British Columbia, are now an almost abandoned and unwanted raw
coal-dirt resource, have been a continuing source of
embarrassment to succeeding governments of British Columbia for
many years, and consist of 15 billion tons of said coal-dirt
materials almost one third of which consists of clay material.
I've coal dirt deposits are situated close paved roads, rail
-transportation, have an adequate available supply of power,
10 and an ample labor source. Processing would be by conventional
type equipment, the cost of mining, recovery, processing and
handling is economical and is sufficiently low to enable the
benefits from its use to be enjoyed in all parts of Canada, and
throughout the world.
For example the products of the present invention would use
less than 1 1/2 tons of raw coal per ton of coal-humus based
product produced, and the expenditure of less than 1/2 hour in
processing time and uses no chemicals whatsoever in its
activation process.
20 as compared with:
The use of 10 tons of raw coal, with additional activating
chemicals, heat processing, the expenditure of fuel energy,
labor, time consuming effort which involves some lo hours of
processing time to make 1 ton of fused conventional commercial
types of activated carbon.
39
Furthermore, when said expanded and leached primary coal-based
products have been subjected to a further reducing and ho-t or
boiling-water leaching treatment of the present invention, said
coal particles have acquired unique sorptive characteristics
without the fusion of their natural capillary sections, whose
adsorptive characteristics under full scale commercial testing
were found to be equal too, and in some cases superior too, those
obtained by certain commercial types of activated carbons used as
a control in said -tests. Since the treatment benefits to be
10 gained by the use of active forms carbon are well known
throughout the world and the treatment accomplishments achieved
by its use is phenomenal, it is expected that with the advent of
this new and simpler way of making dual purpose activated
carbons and because of the dramatic reduction expected in the
price ox the naturally active dual purpose carbons of the
present invention, its use will expand in many differing new
applications and directions and will become available to peoples
all over the world who at the present tumor unable to justify
its use because of the present high cost of such carbons.
because of the expected high volume potential sales for the
new natural carbons, with their widely diversified application Al
roles, where each individual application would require the
employment of some tens of thousands or peoples in both domestic
and export markets wherein their particular expertise in mining,
recovery, initial processing,productresearch, manufacturing,
packaging, handling, transportation, application Al design,
research, testing, domestic and user country infrastructure,
lZ~6~
steel making, structural design, far cay no construction,
installation, will be needed and whereby is created new type long
term job and career opportunities in Canada and potential user
countries, and thus provide new hope and a new way of life for
our many young people and older unemployed peoples throughout the
world.
In summary:
As a result of the success experienced in the application of a
new coal-based odor control product called OUTWORE,
which was originally designed to remove the odors from human,
animal, poultry, pet and fish wastes, invaluable data was
obtained regarding its performance in the uses to which the coal-
based product was put in actual practice. Since there were some
ten thousand product purchasers and presumably users, from the
Provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and the
States of Washington, Oregon and California, the operation was
deemed to have been very successful.
To describe the various uses to which the coal-based products
were put would fill several books, sufficient to say that the
Zoo product was successful for use in all the various applications on
which it was used. Apart from its use as an odor remover, one
of the most successful applications was the use of the carbon-
based product to remove odors from human wastes in outhouses.
One observed fact was that in most cases it was reported that
users claimed that they would never have to dig another outhouse
trench, because the wastes appeared to disintegrate suite
rapidly upon contact with the coal material.
Lo
I
The aforementioned experiences formed the basis for the world s
first coal-based sewage treatment facilities.
Two of the treatment plants were for the treatment of abutter
sewage wastes which is extremely odoriferous, and the other was
for a combined domestic-cement product plant on Vancouver Island.
The three sewage treatment installations were operated
successfully for about ten years, and despite claims to the
contrary by detractors, that they would use large quantities of
coal and would thus prove to expensive to operate, not one extra
ton of coal material was either replaced or added to the
treatment beds beds in all that time.
A comment by Mr. F. sesikr Senior Research Engineer, Applied
Chemistry Department of the Ontario Research Foundation, Sheridan
Park, Ontario on the coal-based sewage treatment systems in
British Columbia says in an excerpt "However, whether your
treatment is a biological process or a combination of biological
and adsorption process is of a secondary importance to the fact,
that it is a new, efficient and economic treatment process, which
can be further improved by proper design of the process
hydraulics and possibly by a more efficient configuration of the
carbon bed."
The present invention relates to the production of a biologically
compatible, improved, natural type of highly adsorptive
activated carbon, from normally inert low sulphur-content raw
coal material having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio and also having
a fixed or constant surface area, with limited if any sorptive
4 2
I
capability, and as claimed by local coal scientists an
engineers the world over, to have properties similar to those of
commonly available filtering media such as sand, gravel, crushed
rock and plastic.
Conventional type commercial activated carbons which are commonly
used in broad applications ( such as deodorants, decolourants,
refining agents, and in pollution control applications) are
manufactured out of a specific organic raw material such as coal,
bone, and wood. The particular type of raw material used
in its manufacture determines its ultimate use. Because it takes
about ten or eleven tons of coal, I hours of processing time and
the use of strong activating chemicals to make one ton of
conventional commercial activated carbon, they are considerably
more costly to manufacture and use. Thus conventional commercial
activated carbons are normally used only where this high cost may
be justified.
By the same token, while the natural activated carbon is
less adsorbent in its initial treatment stage, it may, unlike
conventional commercial activated carbons, be processed in three
separate stages, and in each stage it may be used and further
processed in actual practice. For example; after exposure to an
initial cycle of wetting, drying and leaching the material
becomes a semi-processed treatment and processing medium, and
when this method of processing is artificially continued during
storage, and in-transit in open topped side or bottom dump
railway cars, trucks, barges and/or cargo ships where they are
exposed to the full impact of the elemental forces of nature, as
I
iota
well as the movement of railway cars during their starting,
shunting and stopping procedures, they are further subjected to
uncontrolled abrasive action within the railway car, by contact
with other media particles prior to their arrival at the
intended application Al site. Also since a main part of the
treatment process is that of exposing both the treatment medium
and the waste water under treatment to the forces of the natural
elements the treatment medium receives its final stage of
processing treatment in actual practice while exposed to the
same type of cycles of wetting, drying and leaching that it
received in its initial treatment stage, in its in-transit stage,
and in actual practice during and between the cycles of
waste water loading and unloading of the carbon-humus and
wastewater-treatment and processing beds. - .
The new biologically compatible carbon-humus treatment and
processing medium is unique among sorptive carbons in that, in
addition to being able to perform most of the application Al
functions of conventional commercial activated carbons, the fact
that it is a natural product which has not been heat treated to
make it a fragile structure, or treated with strong activating
chemicals which tend to remove the coal chemicals therefrom which
are needed by various bacterial life forms as food and energy
values, in carrying out their particular tasks in the new widely
diversified fields of coal-biotechnology.
It is well known in the coal mining industry and by any
householder who has used coal for home heating, that coal
materials have a natural tendency to slack when they take on
:~2Z6~8
moisture, and to fracture and create a dust when they dry.
Advantage is taken of this seemingly poor engineering quality of
coal materials, to create the world s first self- processing
affordable natural activated carbon. Where the economics of
recovery and processing are sufficiently low as to justify its
use and thus permit the natural carbon to be sold and delivered
to any application Al area in Canada/ North America and throughout
the export markets of the world at a fraction of the cost of
conventional types of commercial activated carbons.
In the present invention the conversion of low Selfware content
coal materials having a wide carbon ratio into semi processed or
fully processed carbon-humus sorptive products and by-products,
is done by artificially duplicating those same conditions which
create the slacking process in coal. These are providing cycles
of wetting and drying cycles where the coal takes on moisture
which causes it to swell about 5 per cent (this could be done in
the washing plant at the mine site) and exposing the coal
materials to a drying process carried out by articial heat, or by
exposing the coal materials to radiant heat of the sun. The coal
materials are then leached with water to remove soluble
substances and adhering materials. This process provides an
initial expansion treatment. The expanding of the as mined coal
material immediately multiplies its available surface area many
times over, and thus makes the coal material a product rather
than that having properties similar to those of commonly
available filtering media such as crushed stone, gravel, sand or
plastic.
1~674~3
The further processing of the semi-processed media in-transit as
aforementioned provide a further progression of the development
process which provides a wide variety of self-improvement steps
which include, the creation of new surface areas, the opening up
and cleansing of the presently sealed capillary sections leading
off the new surface areas, the activation of the potential
sorptive and bacterial work sites, and the development of the
full economical potential inherent within the expansive coal
medium.
Another worldwide first in the new field of coal biotechnology
makes possible the provision of a completely new type of sewage
treatment system by which from 99 to 100 per cent of the total
and local coliform bacterial and viral content of sewage as well
as its content of suspended and/or dissolved organic matter is
: removed therefrom by a new biotechnological carbon-humus contact
processing method.
further major use is the provision of a new carbon-humus type
of material product having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above
10 and a clue base, whereby is provided an economical and
plentiful means of replenishing the needs of eroded and depleted
soils. Where infertile soils shown by test to have a low
carbon/nitrogen ratio of below 10, can be made more fertile by
the application of a carbon-humus treatment medium having a
carbon/nitrogen of above ten to the extent that an equilibrium is
reached. The addition of finely ground biologically compatible
carbon-humus media which also contains a fully mature type of
humus, trace minerals, fertilizer nitrogen as well as the means
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of fixing atmospheric nitrogen by the biological degradation of
the carbon contained therein and the interaction of nitrogen
fixing bacteria.
During its passage through the atmosphere the natural elements
such as wind, rain, snow, sleet, air, dew pick up atmospheric
nitrogen which has been fixed by lightning, and an added amount
of oxygen which it carries with it when it falls to the earth to
replenish the exposed areas of the soil with both nitrogen and
oxygen.
It has recently been established in an executive review entitled
USE OF COAL IN MUNICIPAL WASTE WATER TREATMENT, done by the
GREATER VANCOUVER SEWERAGE AND DRAINAGE DISTRICT in September
1986, that most all of the worlds top coal researchers,
scientists and engineers scientists in Canada the USE, Europe
and Japan have found after spending millions of dollars on tests
that coal materials have limited if any sorptive capability. In a
study by the present inventor of the papers that were under
review, it was found that in every instance the tests were made
on coal material as mined, and that all the test procedures used
a precut or similar type fine filtering method. The sizings of
the fine filtering medium were in the 18 ho 150 range. It was
said that while a high degree of organic fines removal was
achieved by the precut filtering method, it was found that the
medium rapidly became plugged with a coal-fines sewage-sludge
mixture and would need to be replaced, thus it was estimated that
from 5 to 10 tons of coal fines per million gallons of sewage
treated would be needed for such replacement. It was thought
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that the cost of such treatment would be prohibitive, unless the
coal fines could be borrowed from an adjacent coal-fired electric
generating plant situated near by and then the coal-fines sewage-
sludge mixture could be returned to the plant and burned.
It will be evident that most all the aforementioned tests were
negative as far as proving that coal materials had any valuable
sorptive properties. It will also be evident that while these
same coals tested had an adsorption value ranging from 1 to a top
adsorptive capability of 4 per cent, they were tested in an as
received or as mined state and were compared using a top grade
commercial activated carbon as the control.
It follows therefore that if these same coal materials had been
processed according to the method of the present invention many
of the uses for which these aforementioned failed worldwide
tests were made, would have been successful, and more effective
and economical end-use applications and/or products made thereby.
For example; it has been found that when stack vases containing
large quantities of Selfware dioxide are passed through as-mined
coal materials having low sorptive properties, that they are able
20 to remove these acid producing substances repeatedly in as many
as 40 separate applications, while activated carbon used as the
control could remove many times the amount, but if the natural
activated carbon was to be improved by the use of the method of
the present invention a simpler, practical and more economical
from of acid rain treatment could be made available.
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The carbon-humus medium used in the present invention consist of
fine particulate -200 mesh size, 200 mesh size, and larger sized
lump carbon-humus materials having a mesh size of from 1/4 inch
up through 3 inches to 5 inches and varying combinations thereof,
dependent upon the solids content and flow volume of the
waste water being treated.
Due to the dependency of our mega-project coal mines and their
large scale recovery, transportation, storage, loading and
shipping facilities on our sagging coal export markets, it seems
evident that a new type of coal-based product and/or by-products
that cannot readily be duplicated would protect what markets we
now have, as well as provide a competition-proof widely
diversified new range of products having large scale marketing
potential.
In the BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THY DRAWINGS on page 16 of the
disclosure Figure 4, and the drawing of Figure 4 in the
new pages of the disclosure attached there is provided a
COMPETITION-PROOF, COAL PROCESSING/MARKETING STRATEGY which is
believed to provide a viable solution to at least some of our
coal marketing problems.
Having illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the
invention it should be apparent the invention permits of
modification in arrangement and detail. I claim all such
modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.
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