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:
Oct. 19, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 14, 1998
Youssef El-Shoubary, North Brunswick, NJ (US);
William F Lavosky, Brielle, NJ (US);
Subash C Seth, Watchung, NJ (US);
Ned A Speizer, Brick, NJ (US);
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to a process for cleaning mercury-contaminated soils that is simple, efficient and safe to use. This process can also be used to clean soils contaminated with additional metals, such as zinc, copper and lead, at a lower pH. The present invention involves screening the contaminated soil to remove unwanted materials, leaching the contaminated soils with hypochlorite in a screw reactor, thickening, leaching with hypochlorite and sodium chloride, thickening again and then separating the mercury-containing liquids from the clean soil. This invention also relates to a process which uses sulfide to treat the mercury-containing liquids.