Process for making a synthetic liquid absorbent and products resulting therefrom

摘要

A method for producing synthetic liquid absorbent granules to serve the same purposes as granules made from naturally occurring sorptive minerals such as absorbent clays. Water is mixed with powdered gypsum plaster in mixing apparatus and a paste or slurry condition results, with the volume of water relative to the plaster being varied to vary the bulk density and the absorption capacity characteristics of the ultimate granular product from each mix. The mix is taken from the apparatus and is allowed to set and harden in a form to be readily handled for crushing and sizing into desired screen mesh size granules, or the mix can be directly formed into pellets or granules so as to be allowed to set and harden and be correspondingly sized as the commercial product. Additives can be included in the mixing to vary the density and the absorption characteristics of the final absorbent granules. The fines recovered from screening and sizing the material can usually be introduced into the mix with the plaster and the water, whereby the otherwise unuseable fines have a useful function in the method and in the product manufactured thereby.