A sorbent precursor is described comprising agglomerates of an inert particulate support material, the agglomerates being bound together with a binder comprising cement and/or clay, said binder being characterized as an agglomerate binder, wherein (a) the agglomerates are coated with a surface layer coating comprising a particulate copper compound and one or more coating binders, and (b) the surface layer has a thickness in a range of from 1 to 1000 m. The sorbent precursor may be sulphided to prepare a sorbent for removing heavy metals from fluid streams.

This disclosure describes a composite filter aid containing a structured composite material formed by agglomerating an mineral with a protein-adsorbing binder, in which structured composite material includes a particle of the protein-adsorbing binder bonded to a plurality of particles of the mineral, and a permeability of the structured composite material is greater than permeabilities of both of the mineral and the protein-adsorbing binder. Also disclosed herein are processes for making composite filter aids and filtering methods using the composite filter aids.

A method for preparing a sorbent precursor, which may be sulphided and used to remove heavy metals such as mercury from fluid streams, includes the steps of: (i) mixing together an inert particulate support material and one or more binders to form a support mixture, (ii) shaping the support mixture by granulation in a granulator to form agglomerates, (iii) coating the agglomerates with a coating mixture powder including a particulate copper compound and one or more binders to form a coated agglomerate, and (iv) drying the coated agglomerate to form a dried sorbent precursor.

A novel one-pot solvothermal reaction based on urea hydrolysis to synthesize single crystals of the Zn(NH.sub.3)(CO.sub.3) inorganic helical framework and its applications in selective CO.sub.2 separation.

The invention relates to a process for the manufacture of a porous composite material for use in a gas/solid reaction system. The process includes combining at least one active ingredient, organic binder and an inorganic binder to form a mixture, adding water to form green pellets, partially drying and curing the pellets to form a composite material formed from cured pellets having a crushing strength of 4000 g/pellet-20000 g/pellet, suitable for use in a gas/solid reaction system.

The invention relates to a method for preparing a solid comprising the mixture of a set of compounds comprising at least one Cu.sub.2(OH).sub.2CO.sub.3 powder, one metal oxide powder selected from the group of metals consisting of copper, zinc, iron, manganese and mixtures thereof, and at least one binder as well as the use of the solid prepared by means of this method.

A phosphorus adsorbent, which is used for adsorbing phosphorus in extracorporeal circulation, is a powder comprising a carbonate of a rare earth metal or an oxide of a Group 4 element and having a solubility in 100 g of water at 20 C. of 10 mg or less. The porous fiber, which comprises the phosphorus adsorbent carried therein, shows a change in pH value of from 1.0 to +1.0 inclusive before and after stirring in physiological saline for 4 hours. The phosphorus adsorption columns respectively comprise the phosphorus adsorbent and the porous fiber each disposed therein.

A particulate composition said composition comprises a metal carbonate and/or a metal bicarbonate and a compound of aluminium, characterised in that the weight ratio of metal carbonate plus metal bicarbonate compounds to said compound of aluminium is at least 3:1. The composition is useful for removing halogenated compounds from a hydrocarbon-containing process stream.

A magnetic hydrotalcite composite which is useful in fields such as wastewater treatment, ultraviolet absorption, electromagnetic wave absorption and acid gas absorption, and a production method thereof. The magnetic hydrotalcite composite comprises an inner layer and an outer layer, in which the inner layer is made of a hydrotalcite compound and the outer layer is made of a ferrite compound.

A composition capable of removing chlorides from a gaseous stream and a process of using same. The compositions have sufficient chloride capacity, offer comparable creation of green oil, and have sufficient structural integrity to be utilized as sorbents in a chloride removal process. Generally, the compositions include a first zinc carbonate, a second zinc carbonate different than the first zinc carbonate and an alumina material. The composition has been cured at a temperature between about 149 to 399 C. The first zinc carbonate may comprise hydrozincite and the second zinc carbonate may comprise smithsonite.