Precipitated aragonite and a process for producing it

Abstract

Disclosed is a novel form of particulate precipitated aragonite, a novel process for producing it and compositions containing it.

Description

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001] The present invention relates to a novel form of particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly to a novel form of particulate precipitated aragonite, and to a novel process for producing it.[0002] Various routes are known for the production of calcium carbonate, which finds use as a thickening material, as a filler, as an extender, and most of all as a pigment, in a variety of industries such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, plastics, adhesives, printing, coating (paint), paper, rubber and in filtration. For such purposes, there may be used ground calcium carbonate (GCC) or precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC). PCC in general possesses advantages over GCC, in that it is economical to produce and its precise composition, or purity, can be more strictly controlled.[0003] The most frequently used chemical process for producing PCC is based on the carbonation of aqueous suspensions of calcium hydroxide (also known as "milk of ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0047] It is an object of the present invention to provide particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly particulate precipitated aragonite, as stated in the preceding paragraphs, by a process which is more efficient and less expensive, than those available in the prior art.

[0048] It is yet a further object of the present invention to effect such a more efficient and less expensive process as stated in the preceding paragraph, using sources of CaCO.sub.3 / CaO, which are presently not suitable raw materials for use as e.g. fillers, extenders and pigments, and for other applications, in all of which uses require pigments of high optical properties and high performance, whereby production costs are lowered.

[0049] Still another object of the present invention is to provide a particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly particulate precipitated aragonite, of a superior quality as stated above, in which the produced particles are treated in situ with a hydrophobic agent in order to avoid an extra downstream step and to fine-tune their properties to meet the requirements of consumer products like detergents and cleaning products, especially in the powder forms, toothpastes, sunscreen lotions, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, rubber, plastics, coatings (especially durable paints in acidic environments), inks and paper industries (especially paper production in weakly acidic media), an effect of said in situ treatment being lowering of production costs.

[0050] Still another object of the present invention is to carry out the above-stated more efficient and less expensive process, in a manner which gives rise to filter cakes which are relatively dry, e.g. with no more than about 20 wt. % water, right after the dewatering stage, and thus additionally lowering production costs.

[0051] Another object of the invention is to effect the above-stated more efficient and less expensive process, in such a manner that the particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly particulate precipitated aragonite, does not require, for most applications, any downstream grinding operations, except for the regular mixing systems which are in any event usually installed in the industries mentioned above, and thus additionally lowering production costs.

[0052] Most of all, it is a particular object of the present invention to provide a particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly a particulate precipitated aragonite, of a better quality than that obtained in the prior art, and especially having a higher whiteness, a lower specific gravity and a higher effective refractive index.

Problems solved by technology

The production of aragonite is a slow process and is very difficult to control on an industrial scale.

In both cases, the production costs of precipitated calcium carbonate of pigment grades may be doubled or tripled just because of these unavoidable downstream steps.

However, this product is of a high specific gravity (.about.4.0 g / cm.sup.3), of a high surface area due to its small particles, and most of all, is quite expensive.

Fine kaolin particles are also being used as pigments, but this product, which has a much lower refractive index (1.56), is of limited whiteness and is still relatively expensive.

However, its production rate is characteristically very slow and its production conditions are very difficult to control, industrially.

Also, this patent teaches that it is desirable to operate the process at pH values of at least 8.5 and that at temperatures above 60.degree. C., needle-shaped precipitated aragonite particles are formed, which however produce an adverse flow property effect.

However, due to the cost of the sucrose, the solution had to be recycled and detrimental materials had to be removed by anion exchange resin.

Though the process is claimed to be industrially applicable, it is quite slow and thus of very limited economical value.

It is apparent from the state of the art that known processes for the industrial production of substantially pure particulate precipitated aragonite (>90 parts aragonite: <10 parts calcite), by reacting aqueous calcium hydroxide slurries with carbon dioxide gas or a carbon dioxide containing gas, exhibit serious drawbacks that affect the quality and cost of the final product, as follows:

B. In those processes for producing particulate precipitated aragonite, which allow use of aqueous calcium hydroxide slurries, the production rates are very slow and difficult to control.

However, this complicates the production processes, especially those operated continuously, and which are otherwise of great commercial potential.

D. Dewatering of particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly particulate precipitated aragonite, obtained according to the known art gives rise to relatively wet filter cakes of which the water content is not below 30% and which may thus require a very expensive subsequent drying step.

Moreover, the grinding operation tends to contaminate the product, due to attrition of the grinding media, unless very expensive materials of construction are used for this purpose.

F. The known particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly particulate precipitated aragonite, is of limited whiteness, mainly due to the high residual impurities in the CaCO.sub.3 / CaO feedstock, which it is quite difficult to remove thoroughly, on the industrial scale.

Also, the low whiteness of the product is a limiting factor in choosing the suitable sources of its raw materials (CaCO.sub.3 / CaO).

H. Efforts in the prior art to increase the effective refractive index of particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, and particularly of particulate precipitated aragonite, has not so far succeeded in making this material a serious competitor to titanium dioxide.

Naturally, feeding CaO directly into the carbonator, as mentioned above, does not allow to make use of such purification methods.

However, the anhydrides are much less safe to handle and they are much more expensive than the respective acids.

On the contrary, the salts are usually more expensive, they are not as easy to handle on an industrial scale as the respective acids and, except the Ca.sup.++ salts, all the other salts add cations that, so far as is presently known, are not required in the present process.

However, as may be understood from the desirability of operating the process at its utmost efficiency, e.g. as a flotation operation, it is unlikely that an intermittent mode of operation can compete economically with the continuous mode of operation.

A "real" batch mode of operation, in which the milk of lime and the active agent are mixed together and carbon dioxide gas or a carbon dioxide containing gas is introduced to precipitate the desired product until the reaction mixture turns neutral (at about pH.about.7), appears not to be viable, probably because the active agent is not efficient in catalyzing the formation of desired product, at the high initial pH characteristic of the batch mode of operation in this case, and / or because the active agent is adsorbed onto the surface of the first formed crystals of particulate precipitated calcium carbonate, where it is then "buried" under the subsequent PCC.

While the present process may be operated at higher temperatures and pressures (since the active agent is stable under such conditions), this kind of operation is associated with serious technological problems that may adversely affect the whole economics of the process.

% calcium hydroxide, but such dense slurries are very viscous and are very difficult to handle.

In any case, it is desirable to avoid this threshold concentration at the carbonation stage, as this is a point of instability and would involve unnecessary risk to the desired objective.

Another serious reason to avoid operating the process at too low concentrations, is the fact that the chemical and physical properties of the product, and especially its optical properties and specific gravity, which are quite interdependent, are dramatically affected by the concentration of the active agent.

The active agent is not an expensive material, but still it may throw an economical burden on the total cost of the final product due to the fact that even quite pure particulate precipitated aragonite is a relatively inexpensive material.

%), however, the efficiency of the process may be too low, mainly, due to the cooling effect of the excessive gas.

This in turn may lead to small particles.

At below the lower limit of the HUT the yields may be too low and the PSD (Particle Size Distribution) of the product may be too small, while at the upper limit of the HUT the process throughput may be too low, the yields may be excellent and the PSD may be too small, because of excessive attrition of the product in the flotation cell.

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