The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 11, 1996
Filed:
May. 17, 1994
James C Chen, Houston, TX (US);
Daniel J Monticello, The Woodlands, TX (US);
Energy BioSystems Corporation, The Woodlands, TX (US);
Abstract
The invention relates to a method of separating a multiple phase liquid medium comprising a first liquid phase and a second liquid phase wherein the medium is contacted with a first filter, said filter having been wetted by a wetting agent miscible with the first liquid phase but immiscible with the second liquid phase; whereby the first liquid phase passes through the filter, thus obtaining a filtrate substantially free of the second liquid phase. In a preferred embodiment, separation of a multiple phase liquid medium comprising liquid fossil fuel, water and biocatalyst employing one or two filters is disclosed. One filter will preferentially collect either the liquid fossil fuel or aqueous phase as the filtrate. The retentate will then flow to the second filter which will collect the component not removed before, i.e. the aqueous phase or liquid fossil fuel, as the filtrate. The remaining retentate, containing the biocatalyst, can then, preferably, be recycled. The process can be used to resolve an emulsion or microemulsion of the liquid fossil fuel and aqueous phase resulting from a BDS process. Also described is a method for controlling the reaction parameters of a mixed phase reaction process.