Method and plant for treating water implementing a contact vessel (21) for putting water into contact with a granular adsorbent material and a clarification, granular adsorbent material is constituted by agglomerates of active carbon particles, said agglomerates having an average size of 200 μm to 600 μm and a specific surface area of 800 to 1000 m.sup.2/g, a screen (9) being provided in the upper part of the contact vessel (21) comprising a layer of porous material having a thickness of 1 to 5 mm and a cut-off threshold of 100 μm to 200 μm, said contact vessel (21) having a hopper-shaped lower part (21a), purging means (21b) and stirring means (22) to stir the content of the upper part of this contact vessel (21) without stirring the content of the lower hopper-shaped part.

Disclosed in certain embodiments are sorbents for capturing heavy hydrocarbons via thermal swing adsorption processes.

Disclosed is an activated carbon including pores formed on a surface thereof, in particular, the pores include ultra-micropores having a diameter that is equal to or less than about 1.0 nm.

The present disclosure provides a method for synthesizing fibrous silica nanospheres, the method can include, in sequence, the steps of: a) providing a reaction mixture comprising a silica precursor, a hydrolyzing agent, a template molecule, a cosurfactant and one or more solvents; b) maintaining the reaction mixture under stirring for a length of time; c) heating the reaction mixture to a temperature for a length of time; d) cooling the reaction mixture to obtain a solid, and (e) calcinating the solid to pro duce fibrous silica nanospheres, wherein desirable product characteristics such as particle size, fiber density, surface area, pore volume and pore size can be obtained by controlling one or more parameters of the method. The present disclosure further provides a method for synthesizing fibrous silica nanospheres using conventional heating such as refluxing the reactants in an open reactor, thereby eliminating the need for microwave heating in a closed reactor or the need for any pressure reactors.

Disclosed is an improved process for recovering condensable components from a gas stream, in particular, hydrocarbons from a gas stream such as natural gas. The present process uses solid adsorbent media to remove said hydrocarbons wherein the adsorbent media is regenerated in a continuous fashion in a heated continuous counter-current regeneration system, wherein said heated regenerated adsorbent media is cooled prior to reuse.

A filter medium is provided with a layer (A) provided with non-impregnated active carbon, a layer (B) with a solid carrier material that is impregnated with a permanganate salt, and a layer (C) with alkaline impregnated active carbon. The layer (B) and the layer (C) are arranged such that a gas flowing through the filter medium flows through the layer (B) before flowing through the layer (C). The layer (A) is arranged such that the gas flowing through the filter medium flows through the layer (A) before flowing through the layer (B) or the gas flowing through the filter medium flows through the layer (A) after flowing through the layer (C).

Compositions containing a porous organic polymer and a heavy metal chelating moiety are provided for binding heavy metals, for example in remediation and purification. The compositions can be stable and recyclable. The compositions can contain heavy metal chelating moieties such as a thiol, a sulfide, an amine, a pyridine, or a combination thereof. The compositions can bind heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. The compositions can have a large surface area greater than about 20 m.sup.2/g. The compositions can be used for remediation and purification to remove heavy metals from a solution. The compositions can have a maximum metal uptake capacity of more than 500 mg g.sup.−1 and/or a metal distribution coefficient of at least 1×10.sup.7 mL g.sup.−1 at 1 atm and 296 K. Methods of making the compositions are provided. Methods of binding heavy metals in remediation and purification are also provided.

The present invention is directed to a method of removing uranium from a uranium containing aqueous medium. The method comprises a step of contacting the medium with magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The nanoparticles comprise mesoporous silica and iron oxide. The nanoparticles may also comprise a functionalized surface obtained by grafting or covalently bonding a functional molecule to the nanoparticle.

The present invention provides a column filler for liquid chromatography that has a great adsorption capacity, adjustable adsorption selectivity, and high shape retainability and therefore is usable for measurement of various substances and capable of achieving excellent separation performance and a high filling rate in a column when used as a column filler for liquid chromatography. Provided is a column filler for liquid chromatography including carbon-coated porous particles, the carbon-coated porous particles including porous particles each having a coating layer containing an amorphous carbon on a surface.

The present invention relates to a process for purification of a carbon dioxide feedstock, for example from a production well, which comprises carbon dioxide and gaseous and liquid C.sub.1+ hydrocarbons. Specifically, a carbon dioxide feedstream is passed through one or more separation unit wherein each separation unit removes one or more C.sub.1+ hydrocarbon from the carbon dioxide feedstream to provide a richer carbon dioxide gas stream. The process comprises one or more separation unit which employs an adsorption media and has an adsorption step and a media regeneration step wherein the regeneration step may be operated as a batch process, a semi-continuous process, or a continuous process. One embodiment of this method provides for the use of a different regenerable adsorbent media in two or more separation units.