Mizusawa Industrial Chemicals, Ltd.

Hitoshi Yamamoto

Masashi Hatano

Seiji Kojima

Daisuke Kuse

Kiyohiko Imai

Activated regular-shaped clay particles forming macropores therein, preserving fine structure of the dioctahedral smectite clay minerals, and having particle diameters controlled to lie within a range in which they exhibit excellent filtering property. The invention further provides method of producing activated regular-shaped clay particles comprising the steps of adjusting the particle size of the dioctahedral smectite clay minerals to possess a volume-based median diameter (D ) of from 1 to 10 &mgr;m as found by a laser diffraction method, mixing an acid-soluble or acid-decomposing inorganic compound to the milled product thereof, granulating the mixture into regular particles having a volume-based median diameter (D ) of from 10 to 60 &mgr;m as found by a laser diffraction method, and treating the regular-shaped particles with an acid while maintaining the particle shapes.

Activated clay particles having similar shapes, method for production thereof and use thereof

The present invention provides an activated clay for refining aromatic hydrocarbons such as BTX (benzene, toluene, xylene), etc., satisfying the requirements of both excellent life and excellent side-reaction-preventing property. The activated clay for treating aromatic hydrocarbons is obtained by treating dioctahedral smectite clay minerals with an acid so as to possess a BET specific surface area of not smaller than 250 m.sup.2 /g and to contain iron in an amount of not smaller than 2.5% by weight calculated as Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3.

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Chuo-ku, Japan

Hitoshi Yamamoto