A method of activating and dewatering sludge through application of acoustic pressure shock waves to wastewater.

A method of activating and dewatering sludge through application of acoustic pressure shock waves to wastewater.

A liquid treatment unit removes particulate matter and colloids from a liquid, as found in waste water on mines, on construction sites and on heavy industry sites. The liquid treatment unit includes an electrocoagulation unit and a cyclonic separator unit. The liquid to be treated is first subject to electrocoagulation and then fed into the cyclonic separator unit. The cyclonic separator unit guides the electrocoagulated liquid in a circular path downwardly from an outer perimeter to move underneath a skirt and then upwardly and inwardly towards a central outlet located at the top of the cyclonic separator. Floating particles are skimmed from the surface outside of the skirt. In moving to the outlet, the liquid passes through a plurality of nested frusto-conical guide members. An ultrasonic transducer is used to collapse bubbles formed by electrocoagulation, and to clean the electrocoagulation electrodes.

A method of processing pulp, extracted from red mud in processing bauxite, includes the following steps. The pulp is filtered to obtain a first filter cake and a first filtrate. Aluminum is leached from the first filter cake by adding, to the first filter cake, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution to form an aluminum-containing first slurry. The first slurry is filtered to obtain an aluminum-containing second filter cake and a second filtrate. From the second filtrate, in presence of carbon dioxide gas, first aluminum compounds are filtered out. Aluminum is leached out from the second filter cake by adding, to the second filter cake, NaOH solution to form a second slurry. The second slurry is filtered to obtain a third filter cake and an aluminum-containing third filtrate. From the third filtrate, second aluminum compounds are precipitated out which include sodium hydroaluminocarbonate and aluminum hydroxide.

A method of separating material, such as foam, sludge, oil or grease, at a fluid's surface, by applying acoustic pressure shock waves to the material and the fluid's surface such that acoustic pressure shock waves are propagated in liquid medium of the fluid and in gas medium above the fluid surface.

A method of separating material, such as foam, sludge, oil or grease, at a fluid's surface, by applying acoustic pressure shock waves to the material and the fluid's surface such that acoustic pressure shock waves are propagated in liquid medium of the fluid and in gas medium above the fluid surface.

Systems and methods for dewatering slurries having relatively high solids content such as earthen slurries are disclosed. In some embodiments, one or more transducer devices configured for acoustic spectroscopy and/or electroacoustic spectroscopy are used to determine a parameter related to the particle size distribution (e.g., specific surfaced area) and/or zeta potential of the slurry.

A method of separating heavy water from normal through application of acoustic pressure shock waves to a fluid including heavy water and normal water and recovering separated normal water.

A method of separating heavy water from normal through application of acoustic pressure shock waves to a fluid including heavy water and normal water and recovering separated normal water.

A method of separating material, such as foam, sludge, oil or grease, at a fluid's surface, by applying acoustic pressure shock waves to the material and the fluid's surface such that acoustic pressure shock waves are propagated in liquid medium of the fluid and in gas medium above the fluid surface.