Allied Colloids Limited

David Marshall

Malcolm Hawe

Peter Flesher

John B Clarke

John R Walker

David Farrar

Malcolm Skinner

Allen F Dyson

A water absorbing particulate polymer material wherein the polymer material when in dry powder form has a particle size of about 50 .mu.m to about 500 .mu.m and wherein the particles consist of internally bonded finer particles which finer particles have a size below 50 .mu.m. The process of using the water absorbing polymer, material to convert a wet sticky mass of inorganic particulate such as coal fines into a crumbly or flowable solid. A process using a water absorbing particulate polymer material to convert a wet sticky mass of organic particulate material into a crumbly or flowable solid wherein the organic matter can be, for example, food waste or sewage.

Water absorbing polymers

A wet filter cake of coal fines or other inorganic particulate material is converted to a crumbly mass by blending with water absorbent polymer particles.

A thermal energy storage composition is formed of a thermal energy storage hydrate and a solid, water swellable, thermally conducting polymer by blending particles of the polymer with the thermal energy storage hydrate.

Thermal energy storage compositions

A slurry or cake is converted to a crumbly state by admixture, in the absence of a polymeric binder, with water swellable, cross-linked, non-sticky, wholly synthetic polymer particles formed of a polymer of acrylic acid (as free acid or water soluble salt) with cross-linking agent and, optionally, acrylamide and/or other monomers.

Thermal energy storage compositions comprise a thermal energy storage material, for instance an inorganic hydrate that can undergo a change of hydration with accompanying release or storage of latent heat of hydration at a temperature of 10.degree. to 100.degree. C., held in a matrix of polymeric material, generally acrylic polymer. In one aspect of the invention the composition is in particulate form and so can, for instance, be poured into the heat exchanger in which it is to be used. In another aspect of the invention the storage material includes polyvalent metal ions and the polymeric material is a cationic polymer. In another aspect of the invention the composition is made by forming a solution, generally in water, of all the polymerizable material and most or all of the storage material and then polymerizing the polymerizable material in this solution. The solution is generally a low viscosity fluid and polymerization may be conducted in the heat exchanger vessel in which the composition is to be used.

A gloss emulsion paint having improved gloss and flow properties is achieved by incorporating in the latex at least two gloss improving film forming copolymers of an unsaturated monocarboxylic acid with an unsaturated monocarboxylic acid ester, one of the copolymers having an average molecular weight of from 10,000 to 20,000 and containing 5 to 20 mole percent of the acid units and the other having an average molecular weight of 50,000 to 150,000 and containing from 5 to 40 mole percent of the acid units.

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West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

David Marshall