Metals, such as mercury, may be removed from glycol fluids by applying a sulfur compound having the general formula HS—X, wherein X is a heteroatom-substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, and/or alkylaryl group either alone or in combination with or as a blend with at least one antifoam additive, at least one demulsifier and/or a buffering agent, to chelate the at least one metal and form a chelate complex of the sulfur compound with the at least one metal and then separating the chelate complex from the fluid.

Metals, such as mercury, may be removed from aqueous, hydrocarbon, or mixed oilfield or refinery fluids by: applying a sulfur compound having the general formula HS-X, wherein X is a heteroatom substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, and/or alkylaryl group either alone or in combination with or as a blend with at least one demulsifier, a buffering agent, a pour point depressant, and/or a water clarifier to chelate the at least one metal and form a chelate complex of the sulfur compound with the at least one metal and then separating the chelate complex from the fluid.

The invention concerns a flocculation formulation. The invention also concerns the treatment of mine tailings in the form of aqueous effluents comprising solid particles. With the method of the invention, it is possible to separate all or part of the water from an aqueous effluent comprising solid particles.

Metals, such as mercury, may be removed from aqueous, hydrocarbon, or mixed oilfield or refinery fluids by: applying a sulfur compound having the general formula HS-X, wherein X is a heteroatom substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, and/or alkylaryl group either alone or in combination with or as a blend with at least one demulsifier, a buffering agent, a pour point depressant, and/or a water clarifier to chelate the at least one metal and form a chelate complex of the sulfur compound with the at least one metal and then separating the chelate complex from the fluid.

The present invention provides improved methods for purifying and/or removing multiply charged cations and suspended solids from water. In particular the process relates to an additive composition that has the appropriate surfactant characteristics for effectively removing multiply charged cations and suspended solids from an aqueous or oil/aqueous mixed phase via foam fractionation. According to the invention, a hydrophobically modified polymer that acts as an associative thickener is used in the presence of a source of alkalinity or anionic reactant as well as surfactant in appropriate ratios to facilitate multiply charged cation and suspended solids removal for water purification in any of a number of commercial, environmental and industrial applications.

The present invention concerns new cationic quaternary ammonium compounds which exhibit excellent adsorption properties on negatively charged surfaces. These ones can notably be obtained firstly by reacting an internal ketone with a twin-tail amine under reductive amination conditions to obtain a twin tail triamine, then subjecting the twin tail triamine to a quaternization reaction. They can also obtained be obtained by the quaternization reaction of a certain diamine.

A method is disclosed for dewatering of sludge from a pulp, paper or board making process, such as deinking sludge, including obtaining of an aqueous sludge including an aqueous phase and a fibre material suspended in the aqueous phase. The sludge is subjected to a pre-thickening step, where a first part of the aqueous phase is removed from the sludge and to a pressing step, where a second part of the aqueous phase is removed from the sludge, thereby obtaining a dry pressed sludge. Before or at the pre-thickening step a polymer composition having a charge density of at the most 1.7 meq/g, preferably at most 1.5 meq/g, more preferably at most 1.1 meq/g, is added to the sludge.

The present invention provides improved methods for purifying and/or removing multiply charged cations and suspended solids from water. In particular the process relates to an additive composition that has the appropriate surfactant characteristics for effectively removing multiply charged cations and suspended solids from an aqueous or oil/aqueous mixed phase via foam fractionation. According to the invention, a hydrophobically modified polymer that acts as an associative thickener is used in the presence of a source of alkalinity or anionic reactant as well as surfactant in appropriate ratios to facilitate multiply charged cation and suspended solids removal for water purification in any of a number of commercial, environmental and industrial applications.

A flocculation control system that floats particles that attach to nano and/or micro bubbles out of a liquid includes at least one sensing system, at least one processing system, and at least one fluid additive control system. The at least one sensing system is configured to reproduce one or more nano-bubbles with one or more particles suspended in a fluid. The at least one processing system is configured to measure, using outputs of the at least one sensing system, incident angles between the one or more nano-bubbles and the one or more particles suspended in the fluid. And the at least one fluid additive control system is configured to adjust, based on at least the incident angles, an amount of a surfactant being added to the fluid.

Provided are sequestering agents for sequestering non-water moieties from an aqueous solution. The sequestering agents may comprise a detergent; and a polymer operable to stabilize formation of a detergent micelle thereby causing the detergent and polymer to self-assemble into a nanonet upon exposure to the aqueous solution. Also provided are kits therefore and methods for use of the sequestering agents and kits.