CA1226748A - Multiple-use coal-humus-based, treatment and processing medium - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT
A method of preparing improved coal-humus-based treatment and processing media from non-platy clayey coal material having a wide carbon nitrogen ratio of at least 10. Selected coal material is crushed, screened and subjected to at least one cycle of wetting and drying and then is thoroughly leached. Said coal material is then recrushed and screened to produce therefrom a quantity of fine particulate coal material having a maximum sizing passing through a 200 mesh screen, and a larger size coal material having a maximum diameter approximating 3/4 of an inch.
Selected organic matter is ground and screened to produce fine particulate organic matter therefrom. In the first embodiment of the present invention a nitrogen-producing manure is formulated by intermixing said fine particulate coal medium with said fine particulate organic matter in a proportion of at least 50% of said fine particulate coal material. Said mixture being applied as an intermix with said poor soil, or as a surface application to said soil after seeding. In the second embodiment of the present invention said larger size coal material is used to remove pollutants from both domestic and industrial type polluted wastewater within the same treatment bed by a new type of composting and tertiary-treatment process wherein atmospheric nitrogen is produced as a by-product of said process. In the third embodiment of the present invention said larger size coal-humus media is further processed by subjecting said media to hot water or boiling water leaching, and said fine particulate coal media are further subjected to said hot water or boiling water leaching and further wet re-grinding by explosion proof methods.

Description

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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PUNTS
This invention relates in part to my Canadian Patents Nos.
1,014,932 issued August 2, 1977, No. 1,115j539 issued January 5, 1983, and my US. Patent No. 4,222,7~7 issued September 16, 1980.

The present invention does not conflict with the above patents as it deals with various aspects of the multi-stage development, production and utilization of progressively improved products from inert coal material for use in pollutant treatment, product processing and nitrogenous product production. While my Canadian 10 Patent No. 1,014,932 describes a method of producing an active form of natural carbon from a wide range of coal materials, and the carbon produced by the method of the present invention is specific in that it produces a cleansed coal-carbon from clue coal materials. My Canadian Patent No. 1,152,349 provides a method of restructuring depleted or eroded soils by the application of liquefied soil amending slurries. While my U.S.A.
Patent No. 4~222f787 provides an improved asphalt mixture, for the removal and long term storage of harmful pollutants.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive 20 property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows A method of producing multi-stage sorptive, activating, and application Al, treatment and processing media from selected inert coal material and organic matter, having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios and self actuated expansive surface areas and products and by-products produced by practicing the method .

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It is well known, that we fertilize the fields mainly by applying nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil.
actually plants need a much more varied diet than that. They normally get all the additional nutrients they need out of the soil. But we cannot continue to do this without giving something back to the soil in return. It has been found that the ratio of carbon to nitrogen in the soils indicates the extent of decomposition and the nature of organic matter contained in them.

"A wide carbon/nitrogen ratio is indicative of a fertile soil;
while a narrow carbon/nitrogen ratio suggests a poor soil."

The present Habor-Bosch method of manufacturing nitrogen fertilizer is remarkably crude. By applying enormous temperatures and atmospheric pressures with the aid of suitable catalysts atmospheric nitrogen is reduced, combined with hydrogen to form ammonia, from which various nitrogen dependent compounds including plastics are made. While, in nature, soil-living micro-organisms carry out the same process at normal soil temperatures. Worldwide, this natural process provides 70 to 90 per cent of all fixed nitrogen: much of the rice crop in the Far 20 East is almost exclusively fertilized by blue green algae living on the soil surface. The particular interest in blue green algae lies in the fact that the algae live in the fronds of the water fern, on the soil surface, and provides the fern with ammonia and in return gets carbon compounds necessary for its growth. It has been observed that when peat, lignite and bituminous coal is mixed with soil in a very finely ground condition, they are slowly oxidized and in this process the natural fixation of Sue nitrogen occurs. Furthermore, it has also been observed that the amount of nitrogen fixed on the soil surface is greater in sunlight than in the dark. The growing of wheat and rice has been found to have been benefited by the addition of finely ground lignite, or bituminous coal together with organic matter to the soil after planting or seeding. The addition of said coal/organic mixture to the soil is seen to add a more effective type of carbonaceous nitrogenous-manure and minerals needed for plant growth thereto. Again, it has been found that:

(1) Ammonium sulfite and ammonium phosphate lose the larger portion of their nitrogen content as nitrogen gas even in two months after their addition to the soil. While with ammonium nitrate, ammonium tart rate, ammonium oxalate and ammonium citrate, urea, and hippuric acid the 105s is less within the same period.

(2) With nitrogen-rich compounds having a carbon/nitrogen ratio of less than 10, small quantities of humus are added to the soil and there is rapid loss of nitrogen in the gaseous state although they are quick acting manures.

zoo (3) With organic plant materials, farmyard manures, kidding, straw etc., with carbon/nitrogen ratios greater than 10 , when added to the soil, fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and humus formation tykes place, and the addition of humus is much greater than when such substances are added after composing them elsewhere. The greater the carbon/nitrogen ratio of the starting material the greater is the nitrogen fixation and increase in humus. This is the chief source of soil nitrogen.

(4) The greater the fixation of nitrogen and humus Formation in the soil, the greater is the residual effect of a manure.

(5) lumps liberates nitrates more slowly than ammonium salts and other quick acting manures and benefits the crop for a longer period. This is why the nitrogen status of a soil is not improved without the addition of carbon compounds.

(6) Peat lignite, brown coal, and bituminous coals have higher carbon/nitrogen ratios than normal soils. The higher -the 10 rank of coal, the greater is the carbon/nitrogen ratio, except lignite which usually contains less nitrogen than bituminous coal (7) Considerable quantities of humus are present in peat, lignite and bituminous coal. These materials improve crop ion by their slow liberation of nitrate and fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. These are also beneficial to alkaline soils.

(8) The same elements which are present in plants are also present in coal.

The removal of carbon from the atmosphere is brought about by -the utilization of carbon dioxide in weathering rocks, or by 20 photosynthesis where carbon is taken in and oxygen is liberated .
This removal of carbon from the atmosphere is compensated for by the processes of decay, combustion and animal respiration which are continually occurring. The decay process involves the liberation of carbon and hydrogen as carbon dioxide, methane, ~2~'7~B

water,etc. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen in soils indicates the extent of decomposition and the nature of organic matter contained in them. As was aforementioned, a wide carbon nitrogen ratio is indicative of a fertile soil; a narrow ratio suggests a poor soil. Therefore, if a suitable coal and organic mixture were available having predetermined carbon/nitrogen characteristics similar to a greater extent than those contained in the aforementioned unbalanced soils, the addition of a coal and organic matter mixture in finely ground form, to the extent 10 that said soils were found to be deficient in these elements, would bring said unbalanced soils into balance as fertile soils.
The said fine particulate materials of said coal and organic matter mixture when applied to or upon the aforementioned well balanced fertile soils having wide carbon-nitrogen ratios could serve as natural miniature ammonia "factories" within or upon the soil, so that if they became available at a reasonable increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantages of using a coal-organic matter mixture as the effective ammonia producing medium as opposed to ammonia produced artificially by 20 the aforementioned Habor-Bosch process superior natural nitrogen nitrogen fertilizer products and other nitrogen dependent compounds including plastics would be produced at a considerable savings over conventional ammonia-producing methods.

Fertilizing materials which are most commonly used in broad applications, such as (gardens, small holdings, horticulture, agriculture, and silver culture) are synthetic chemical or organic fertilizers. While the former may be effective in 6'74~

providing quick plant growth and increased crop production by the force feeding of plants, they are considerably more expensive to manufacture, handle and use. In many instances, organic fertilizer may be chosen to fertilize a large area instead of synthetic chemical fertilizer even though its anticipated crop producing capability may be somewhat smaller. While synthetic chemical fertilizers give quicker response, and produce a greater amount of crops, they suffer from the disadvantage in that they may alter the structural integrity of a soil and the 10 multiplicity of beneficial processes going on there within, the soil may be degraded, depleted or depressed in various ways dependent on the environmental conditions existing in the soils under treatment. In those areas where the isle has been eroded and has lost its normal content of organic matter and clay the soils will not hold water and thus will tend to become decertified and non-productive. In those areas which have been subjected to force feeding of the soil to increase crop production the land becomes more and more dependent each year on the application of increasing amounts of synthetic chemical 20 fertilizers until the soil reaches a state when it will no longer grow or support the growth of crops, and is usually abandoned.

In the cases referred to above, the degradation of the soil is due to the exhaustion by depletion of the residual plant growth component parts including mature humus, fresh organic humus-making materials, available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and trace minerals making up the soil structure. If this depletion could be amended and a material were to become available which 4~3 could correct this soil condition, and at the same time provide a favorable plant growth environment upon the soil surface similar to that provided by the aforementioned blue green algae whereby nitrogen from the air is fixed by bacteria living upon the soil surface, and the ammonia fertilizer production therefrom were to be increased sufficiently by a coal-based oxidation-composting process using an improved coal-based medium, at a reasonable increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantages of using a coal-based and/or organic based ammonia producing 10 system as opposed to the use of synthetic chemical fertilizer system a superior natural fertilizing material would be produced at a considerable savings over synthetic chemical fertilizers.

y the same token, the treatment of liquid organic materials such as domestic sewage, combined domestic and industrial sewage, as well as agricultural, animal and manufacturing wastes of organic origin where most all have wide carbon/nitrogen ratios consists essentially of the removal and disposal of solid materials from incoming raw sewage. A major portion of the finer solid material is removed by passing the sewage through a 20 container where the flow rate is sufficiently low to Kermit a small fraction of the finer solids to settle out into what is known as a sludge. The finer solids materials of these various types of sewage and consequently the aforementioned sludge are largely organic substances that are particularly susceptible to putrefaction. If permitted to remain static for an extended period such sludge undergoes organic attack known as acid digestion and forms what is known as a supernatant liquid which Tao has a particularly offensive odor.

In the cases referred to above, the degradation of organic matter and its conversion into putrescent matter is due primarily to the breakdown of the floating, suspended, dissolved or dispersed organic substances in said organic sewage. If this degradation process were to be speeded up sufficiently by controlled biotechnological processes involving a coal-based oxidation-composting process using an improved type of self no-generating treatment medium without the production of offensive 10 odors, and the treatment effectiveness of the coal treatment medium were to equal or surpass that of a conventional sewage treatment system, and commercial quantities of ammonia nitrogen were to be produced, collected and concentrated as a nitrogen-rich effluent by-product therefrom, a safe and superior treated tertiary-quality effluent could Joe produced which would result in turning high cost municipal sewage treatment systems into valuable and potentially profitable new municipal industries.

Similarly, methods of collecting, treating and carrying water have traditionally proved inadequate due to the polluted nature 20 of our water caused by world pollution which have contaminated our sources of water even in our northern lakes and waterways.
Demands for our northern waters to be brought on tap have been made of our provincial and federal government s. Most all of our waters of which we own 30 per cent of the world's total freshwater supply, issue from swampy areas and thus contain organic pollutants from the areas feeding the water stream, as well as wind-carried pollutants from Canada, the United States I 4~3 and Europe. It is evident therefore that any waters originating from any of our Northern freshwater sources are polluted before they start their journey south, and consequently will become more so, when they are diverted from their natural channels and conducted down through Canada s industrial heartland-areas and perhaps south down to, and through the waterwater-short areas in the United States and Mexico. It is evident therefore that before these waters can be utilized for potable water or other less sensitive applications, that they will need to be cleansed of said pollutants prior to, during and subsequent to, their utilization by potential users. Since the major portion of the pollutant load in the water will be of organic origin, collected from the swampy areas from which the stream originated, as well as from lesser streams flowing into the larger waterway and also from the organic and industrial type pollutants seeping from farms, sewage or combined sewage generated from populated areas all along the natural or artificial route until it reaches its potential user, the availability of a treatment medium having an an affinity for a wide range of widely diverse pollutants, which will spontaneously compost organic substances on contact in an odour-free manner, adsorb toxic substances and heavy metal contaminants to an extremely high degree, prevent the development of harmful interaction between differing chemicals discharged therein and which can be put in suspension in said water will negate the possibility of contamination resulting from the use of the water by the eventual user, user applications or the environment.

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In the cases referred -to above, the contamination of the water is due to the natural accumulation of swamp debris and other pollutants which have originated from wind-carried pollutant-sources issuing from Canadian, United States Russian and European manufacturing activities, and are collected therein in its long passage to potential areas of utilization. The treatment of flowing water in this instance is not an easy one, as the waters as well as their pollutant content are added to in their journey by an ever-increasing amount and variety of exotic 10 pollutants as they wind their way over some hundreds and perhaps thousands of miles to an area of potential use. If the pollutant content could be reduced sufficiently by the addition of a suitable treatment medium thereto, so that were to arrive at their destination in an acceptable condition, at a reasonable increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantages of using a treated water as opposed to, for example, water from a sea-water desalination plant, a superior water would ox produced at a considerable savings over desalinated sea-water.

Further-more, for many -thousands of years streams and their 20 waterway-network have been cleansed of the pollutant-load carried thereby in a natural way, that is, by passing the polluted waters over and through the pebbles and stones normally found in the bed of the stream. In such streams beneficial bacteria work to the extent that food is available to them from the water, and form a coating known as a bacterial slime over the pebbles and stones forming the bed of said stream in order to provide a working base from which beneficial bacteria are able -to cleanse I

the pollutant load in the process. Many materials have been suggested and utilized to serve as substitute waste water treatment media in place of pebbles and stones, and include plastic, crushed rock, and hard anthracite coal. These treatment media were all selected on the basis of their density, insolubility, hardness, resistance to abrasion and filtering ability, their suitability in serving as bacterial working areas in the deposition of the aforesaid bacterial slimes thereon, and their subsequent utilization in the removal of pollutants from 10 the waters of pollutant-carrying streams. In essence, therefore, suitable waste water treatment media are still being selected for use in treating waste water of whatever strength or content) mainly on the basis of their filtering qualities and their adsorptive capacity is permanently limited by reason of their solidity to their external, visual outer surface areas. The only noticeable change in conventional practice is to use fixed plastic treatment media in a mechanized version. Wherein -the plastic media is rotated within a drum-type device with additional aeration for use by bacteria in the degradation process. The 20 main disadvantage with the use of the aforementioned solid type of treatment medium with a fixed sorptive surface area, is that when the available sorptive surface area has reached its capacity and can no longer hold an increased amount of the available bacterial and contaminant load, the medium becomes overloaded with the distinct possibility that these surplus materials will slough off the plastic medium in an untreated state which may result in widespread contamination of the surrounding area.

In the cases zeroed to above, the difficulty entreating polluted waters is due to the inability of conventional treatment systems and treatment media used therewith to cope with the greater contaminant loads and the growing complexity of the contaminants carried therein. It is evident that effective treatment by conventional methods is most difficult, and it is felt that if a solution to the problem is not found soon, that the existing problems may increase manifold. Therefore, if a material were to become available which could serve to complement 10 conventional waste water treatment systems so that they could become more treatment-effective and serve to help prevent certain difficult -treatment situations from developing, at a reasonable increase in cost which would not negate the economic advantage of using a multiple-purpose coal-based treatment medium to complement said conventional treatment systems, a superior type of waste water treatment system and treatment medium to be used therewith would become available and be produced at a considerable savings in treatment costs.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
In the present invention, biotechnological methods of utilizing multiple purpose coal-based media are disclosed to provide by improved oxidative-composting and adsorptive processes new and novel products and by-products having widely diversified treatment, application Al and processing potential. Which comprises crushing and screening a clue type of selected non-piety coal material having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above and a ragged, irregular and interlocking type of fracture aye on breaking or crushing (piety meaning, coal materials that are formed in loosely held flat layers which are subject to early breakdown by slacking), and subjecting said coal materials to at least one cycle of wetting and drying, followed by a thorough leaching by one, or a combination of materials chosen from the group consisting of hot or cold water, hot or cold air, steam, an acid or a base. And thereafter, crushing and screening said coal materials and selected non-toxic organic matter having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios, to produce therefrom as separate 10 quantities thereof, a fine particulate expanded and leached coal-based product and a fine particulate organic material, wherein said fine particulate expanded and leached coal-based product and said fine particulate organic-matter product are characterized by having a maximum particle diameter passing through a 200 mesh size screen and a larger sized expanded and leached coal-based product having a particle diameter approximating 3/4 of an inch.
Either or both of said fine particulate products may be added to a soil surface or as an intermix therewith. When the mixture is applied to said soil surface a process of nitrogen fixation takes 20 place aided in part by the oxidation of the coal particle and the composing of the organic matter and in the combined process with the aid of air, soil and water bacteria as well as sunlight. The amount amount of nitrogen fixed in the light is double that fixed in the dark. In a first embodiment of the present invention, a fertilizer mixture having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios suitable for fertilizing small or large areas of unbalanced soils (meaning soils having a low carbon/nitrogen ratio or below 10) are added to the soils either as an intermix therewith or as a surface 7~3 application. When the mixture is added as a surface application ills applied to the soil to a depth of millimeters preferably after the soil is planted or seeded. When added as a soil amendment to unbalanced poor soils (meaning, soils having a carbon/nitrogen ratio of below 10), said mixture is intermixed with said unbalanced soil in the proportion found necessary to bring said poor soil up to that of a balanced or fertile soil above the ratio of 10. The coal materials are selected from the group of coals having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio and a non-10 piety structure consisting of thermal and metallurgical coals and wastes thereof, including lignite coal, near coal, clue coal, waste coal, fly ash, oxidized coal, leonardite or any coal-associated materials. And the organic materials are chosen from the group consisting of non-toxic products or wastes thereof having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above 10 including garden, agricultural, forestry, sewage, manufacturing, food, animal, dairy, poultry or most any type of non-toxic organic material or substance meeting the said required criteria. The second embodiment of the present invention, results in the provision of 20 a coal-based composing, filtration-adsorption bed wherein said

3/4 inch expanded and leached coal based product is utilized as the treatment, processing and ammonia manufacturing medium therein. In this process liquid polluted streams including organic substances are passed through shallow confined beds of said coal-based medium wherein said organic matter is spontaneously composed in an odour-free manner, on contact with said coal medium, It is felt that, because a greater amount of ammonia nitrogen is found in treated effluent issuing from the ~2~i7~8 treatment beds than could have been generated from the oxidation of either the coal or organic carbons, that a process of atmospheric nitrogen fixation is going on between said a-r we breathe, the coal medium and the organic liquids passing there through, aided by sunlight. The coal-based treatment beds are formed upon a solid slightly sloped base, of sufficient length to assure full treatment , and to a depth of not more than about 1 foot. It has been found, for example, that an installation measuring 60ft by oft with a center divider board to lo increase the length of flow area to 120ft containing about 6 tons of said coal-based treatment medium will handle the septic tank effluent from a very large household for over ten years without replacing the treatment medium, and an installation 250ft by loot containing about 250 tons of said coal-based treatment medium placed to a depth of 12 inches would suffice for the treatment of sewage effluents from a town of about ten thousand people over a period of about ten years without replacement of the treatment medium used therein. The treatment medium used in said treatment installations has an expansive surface area and 20 self-cleansing capillary sections . The expansive process is activated by the repeated wetting and drying cycles it experiences in its every-day use in whatever application is in process. For example, the coal particle expands on wetting and fractures upon drying, thus opening up newly formed potentially 25active adsorptive surface areas, further when the waters are caused to flow through the coal medium during use, the presently sealed labyrinthian capillary network therein with its vast adsorptive potential is cleansed, reactivated suitable for use.

BRIEF Description OF TOE DRAWINGS
Fig. l. is a flow diagram showing the various facets of the process for producing fine particulate nitrogenous manure media of the first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2. is a flow diagram showing the various facets of the process for producing ammonia nitrogen from low Selfware content coal, organic matter and soils having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios of the second embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3. is a flow diagram showing the various facets for 10 producing progressively expanding external and internal sorptive surface areas and cleansed capillary sections from clue coals of the third embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4. is a flow diagram showing the various facets for producing semi-processed, and continuously processing carbon-humus media prior to, during and subsequent to the multiple stage processing and marketing strategy of said fourth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In practicing the present invention and with reference to Fig.
20 l. Most coal materials, organic materials and soils having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios may be used or be beneficially influenced by its use. Such coal materials or organic matter may have little or no apparent commercial value for their BUT content I ~2~7~8 but are especially useful to the present invention. Such coal typically contains as much as 50~ by weight of non-combustible material, including moisture, dirt and ash. Materials which have been found acceptable for use in practicing the present invention include all coal-associated materials, organic matter and soils having hide carbon/nitrcgen relics above 10. Such as most thermal and metallurgical coals and wastes thereof, lignite, bone coal, coal shale, near coal, clue coal, coal wastes, fly ash, oxidized coal and leonardite. end the organic matter may consist 10 of non-toxic organic matter having a wide carbon nitrogen ratio above 10 chosen from the group consisting of garden produce or wastes, forestry, horticulture, animal, agricultural, dairy, food, manufacturing wastes or most any type of non-toxic organic materials meeting the above criteria.

The coal material whose internal and external surface areas are to be expanded and leached is crushed and screened to size, the sizing resulting in a fine particulate coal material having a maximum particle sizing passing through a 200 mesh size screen (with no minimum diameter), and a larger sized coal material 20 having a minimum particle diameter sufficient to be retained on a 200 mesh size screen and a maximum particle diameter approximating 3/4 of an inch. The coal materials may be crushed and screened to size prior to the wetting, drying and leaching process or subsequent to these processes. Due to the difficulty in handling the fine particulate coal material, i-t may be easier to process and produce the expanded and leached coal material prior to crushing and sizing the coal materials.

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The following examples are illustrative of the invention but are not intended to be limiting in any manner..

EXAMPLE l In producing a nitrogenous manure for use in bringing soils having a carbon/nitrogen ratio lower than lo or that indicative of a poor soil, into balance, a mixture consisting of fine particulate coal and fine particulate organic matter having wide carbon/nitrogen ratios above lo which are indicative of a fertile soil are produced by spreading suitable coal materials having a 10 wide carbon/nitrogen ratio one to three feet deep over a broad confined area and sprinkle irrigating with water for a period of time sufficient to at least moisten the lowermost coal materials. The coal materials are then allowed to dry by exposure to solar radiant energy, the process being repeated daily for a period of seven days. At the end of seven days the coal materials are flood irrigated so that all of the coal particles are totally saturated with water, which is then drained and the coal materials are allowed to completely dry. it this point, the coal materials are crushed and screened to produce therefrom a 20 fine particulate coal material passing through a 200 mesh screen and a larger sized coal particle having a maximum sizing approximating I of an inch.

The coal materials resulting from the above processes are added together with selected organic matter having similar wide carbon/nitrogen ratios which has previously been ground to form a fine particulate product, to form a fine particulate nitrogen producing mixture. The mixture is added to poor soils (meaning those soils having a carbon/nitrogen ratio lower than 10), to bring the soils into balance with fertile soils known to have a higher carbon/nitrogen of above 10. When the mixture is applied to eroded or depleted soils it is added such that a depth approximating 2 millimeters is achieved covering the whole area being treated. It may be applied as an intermix with the present soil or as a surface application thereto. When the mixture is applied as an intermix with the soil the coal material portion of the mixture immediately becomes the mature humus lacking in the soil (because of the high percentage of mature coal-humus in coals), and the organic matter becomes the fresh humus-making material needed by the soil during its decomposition, to provide plant growth nutrients to promote and sustain good crop production. When said mixture is added to the soil it is best provided as a surface application after the soil has been seeded.
In accordance with the method of the present invention, double the amount of atmospheric nitrogen can be produced after fixation upon the soil surface as compared with the amount fixed when intermixed with soil in the dark. After subsequent harvesting of 20 the crop the remaining coal organic mixture on the soil surface is turned over into the soil together with any crop residues left after said harvesting, when they become an important new source of residual mature humus and of potential humus.

In producing an improved composting-filtering medium having strong multi-purpose nitrogen producing and pollutant adsorptive capabilities for use as a long term waste water treatment medium, a clue type inert raw coal material having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio and a ragged, irregular fracture on breaking is utilized. The raw coal material is similar to that used in Example 1, except that it is characterized by having a maximum sizing approximating 3/4 of an inch. In practicing the 10 present invention said inert clue raw coal material is crushed and screened to said 3/4 inch mesh size and then is subjected to at least one cycle of wetting and drying followed by a thorough leaching to remove said clay therefrom. A shallow slightly inclined treatment bed is constructed having an impervious base and sides, said bed having an inlet and outlet means with sides of a sufficient height, width and length so that a sufficient quantity of said coal-based treatment medium may be placed therein so as to provide a depth of 12 inches over said base greater depth does not provide greater pollutant removal) and 20 the quantity of said coal medium placed therein may range from 10 tons for a domestic installation, to about 250 tons for an installation capable of handling 10,000 gallons of high strength abutter liquid wastes daily (abutter liquid wastes are about twenty times stronger than domestic sewage) or the equivalent of domestic sewage wastes generated from a small town of 10,000 people. The coal-medium treatment beds may be utilized as a composting-filtering' waste water treatment system for use in the treatment of either domestic liquid wastes, industrial liquid wastes or a mixture of both domestic and industrial liquid wastes. If it is desired to remove organic pollutant materials in a first stage of treatment from a polluted liquid stream, said coal medium may be used to preferentially remove such organic from said stream by spontaneously composing them on contact with said coal-medium. This is done spontaneously as said pollutant stream is passed there-through. If it is desired to remove a mixture of said pollutants including said organic from said pollutant stream, said pollutant-stream mixture is passed trough said treatment bed wherein said coal medium will effectively remove said organic materials by composing within an unconfined meaning a first portion of an undivided treatment bed) smaller first portion of the treatment bed as said pollutant stream is passed there through in a first stage of the treatment process. The remaining larger portion of said treatment area within said treatment bed is utilized to provide an additional higher degree of tertiary type of pollutant removal and final controlled effluent polishing (meaning cleansing) to said stream.
It is evident that nitrogen produced by the slow oxidation of the coal medium, organic composing, and atmospheric nitrogen fixation by soil, air and water bacteria in the presence of light will serve to concentrate and accumulate said nitrogen within said effluent stream. This nitrogen-rich effluent stream may be collected under controlled conditions and used as a valuable feed stock material for nitrogen fertilizers, plastics or other uses. Thus making the treatment of town sewage a profitable new municipal industry instead of being a burden to tax-payers.

7~8 The third embodiment and Example off present invention provides a new and novel method of processing hard compact raw coal materials to make ox them multiple-purpose treatment and processing media having a high degree of adsorptive ability which is equal to, and in some instances superior to, that of a good grade of commercial activated carbon. Such coal materials may note chosen pharisees a filtering medium because of the closer availability of conventional types of filtering media such as 10 gravel, stone or plastic. Many researchers have tested various coal material to determine their suitability for use as adsorbent, but as yet have not found a coal material in either Canada or the U.S.A. with a sufficient high adsorptive capacity for commercial application.

An example of the low regard in which coal is held can bison in the following review:

"The Pollution Control Branch has reviewed and evaluated fifteen major papers, including Prof. Coul-thard s work, concerned with the use of coal for the removal of organic material, zoo nutrients and heavy metals. The conclusions which were drawn regarding the use of coal-based treatment processes are as follows:

1. Coal beds will act as filters, physically removing suspended matter from waste water, as will other commercially available media such as gravel, plastic, eta 2. Coal beds will also act as biological filters, with the coal serving as the medium to support the biological growth which removes dissolved organic from waste water Similarly, other commercially available media will provide surface area to support biological growth.

3. Coal itself does not adsorb or remove dissolved organic or nutrients, such as nitrates or phosphates, to any significant extent.

4. The analysis of two British Columbia Hat Creek and Union Bay coals by standard adsorption tests indicated that -the potential adsorptive capacity of these coals is much lower than that of commercially available activated carbons "

In none of the aforementioned test reports was the inventor consulted or asked -to give his version of the relative effectiveness of coal as a coal-based treatment medium as opposed to the use of s-tone, gravel or plastic treatment media.

The conclusions given above are incorrect and are somewhat misleading, as is seen in the following study:

0 1. While a coal medium will remove suspended matter from waste water it does it primarily by means of a spontaneous composing process aided by an expandable adsorptive surface area. The other types of media such as stone, gravel and plastic have a fixed or constant adsorptive surface area and little if any, composing capability.

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7'~3 2. The processed coal medium in the coal beds does not serve primarily as a medium to support biological growth because of the rapidity of the composing process in removing suspended organic from said livid sewage effluents which process occurs immediately on contact with the coal medium, thus time does not permit for a noticeable build up of biological growth on the coal medium. Thus the coal medium is not similar to other forms of conventional media in this regard. In observations of coal-based sewage treatment installations, which have been in constant use for from five to ten years no build up of biological growth has ever been seen on the coal medium, used in the coal-based sewage treatment beds.

3. Coal as a raw material does not adsorb or remove dissolved organic or nutrients to any significant extent as freshly mined materials, but -the processed coal medium produced from most types of freshly mined coal materials, after being processed according to the method of the present invention has a dramatically increased adsorptive capacity.

I. The analysis of Hat Creek coal treatment medium by standard adsorption tests after said expanding and leaching process of the invention, using a hot water solvent, was equal to and exceeded that of a commercial activated carbon used as a control.

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5. The capillaries of a coal medium after said expanding and leaching process of the present invention have a larger diameter than those of a commercial activated carbon and thus can reach their full sorptive capacity in a shorter period of time.
Experimentally, it has been found that, coal media may have reached its full sortpive capacity in one hour, while commercial activated carbons may not reach their full sorptive capacity for several days. Thus the choice of a coal medium for use in small or larger scale treatment applications would provide, because of 10 its much lower initial cost, its sorptive speed and sorp-tive capacity a more economical and effective medium for use in the treatment of polluted waters than commercial activated carbons.
Furthermore, since the processing of the coal medium does not involve the use of time, energy materials and capital intensive procedures in its manufacture, which tends to limit the cost effectiveness of commercial activated carbons, particularly in those areas needing its benefits the most.

6. In most applications where commercial activated carbons are used, the high initial cost can be justified only because the 20 activated carbon can be reactivated readily. In practice, because of very fine size of the capillaries in commercial activated carbons the capillaries become clogged more readily than those of the coal-based medium and thus need to be reactivated frequently.
On the other hand the composing by the coal medium of the organic in a polluted stream passed therewith and the continuously expanding of the coal medium surface areas negate the necessity of reactivating the coal medium.

The reason for the lack of adsorptive capacity in the aforementioned 15 reports is that all the tests were done with coal materials as mined, or raw coal materials. Evidence of this is seen in the following exerts from studies done by Silves-ton and Shannon at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. the findings of which have been referred to in many of the aforementioned 15 papers reviewed, and were presented at the at the Colloquium of Coal and Coal Products, held at Quebec City, September Thea, 1968.

10 Waterloo University:
"Coal materials were relieved in lump size. They were first crushed in a chipmunk crusher, ground in a disk mill , sieved in a shaker assembly into narrow particle-size ranges and stored under distilled water until needed. The latter precaution was necessary because adsorption capacity diminished on standing apparently due to the slow oxidation of ground coal by air."

The following two excerpts from a Canadian manufacturing plant and an American Research Institute shows the potential treatment value inherent in the use flat Creek Coal Carbon as 20 opposed to the use of the more expensive commercial activated carbons.

Canadian:
"A sample of effluent containing mercury residues was treated and it was found that the level of mercury decreased from 13 Pam to 0.25 Pam This again compares very favorably with other active carbons now used for this purpose and should be iota studied in detail to obtain saturation values.

Two series of tests were run in order to ascertain if the activity of the carbon could be increased by artificial means such as a washing process. The procedure adopted for washing the coal material comprised a five minute preboiling step and subsequent filtration. It was thought that -this process may open up and expose, fresh surface upon which the adsorption may take place.

The results are tabulated comparing the washed to the unwashed coal materials as follows:

Potassium permanganate 2ml = 10ml of0.1N Ferrous Ammonium Sulfite.

WASHED MATERIAL
Particle size Back Title 0.lN PHASE. Into. KMnO4cc KmnO4ml _______ _____ __________~___________ _____________ _______ ~20 10.0 10 I
~40 10 10 8.0 ~60 64 25 12.20 -~80 7.0 25 23.60 ~100 107 50 28.60 -~200 58 50 38.40 UNUSED MATERIAL

Particle size Jack Title 0.lN PHASE. Innately. KMnO4cc KMnO4ml _____________ _____________________ _________ ___ _______ ~20 10.1 10 7.98 ~40 9.8 10 8.09 I 68.0 25 11.40 -~80 7.2 25 23.56 ~100 115 50 27.00 -~200 65 50 37.00 --200 245 100 51.00 It will be seen from the figures that similar results were obtained for both materials except in the case of the -200 mesh size washed material. Here it will be seen that a drastic increase in adsorptive properties took place after washing not experienced by the other mesh sizes photographs of slides No. 1 and 2, taken during microscopic examination of thin sections of both materials , reveals that the active centers may possibly be of such size , that grinding to less than 200 mesh size and subsequent washing will make available the large majority of these sites and hence account for the increased activity.

It was calculated -that -the finely ground washed material adsorbed 19.2 grams or 14.2 times its own weight of potassium permanganate. This compared extremely favorably with conventional active carbons which appeared to reach a saturation point when nine times its own weight of materials was adsorbed.

LO

HAT CREEK COAL TESTS
Conclusions "The Hat Creek coal tested was found to have similar and in certain cases, superior adsorption properties to conventional active carbons previously evaluated. It is thought that with the reduced manufacturing costs anticipated with this material that a very wide range of applications may be sought where the cost factor would otherwise render this mode of treatment impossible."

AMERICAN HUT CREEK COWL TESTS
10 McMinville Research Institute, McMinville, Oregon, U.S.A.
Conclusions Organic Adsorption "Only very preliminary studies have been carried out thus far using phenol and nitrobenzine. Ten grams of neutral washed carbon was treated with 10 grams of pure nitrobenzine and ten grams of 90% aqueous solution of phenol for one hour. By weighing the carbon before end after exposure to the organic the following results were obtained:

g of organic adsorbed/gram of carbon Phenol 0.19 Nitrobenzine 0.16 These results compare favorably with the results of a study in which phenol and nitrobenzine were adsorbed on a large area commercial activated carbon. This activated carbon, which possessed a surface area of l,200m go adsorbed 0.094 grams of 6';1~

phenol/gram of carbon and 0.22 grams of nitrobenzene/gram of carbon. These results show that the natural (flat Creek) carbon adsorption of these two organic is equal to that of a high grade synthetic activated carbon.

In the present invention it will be seen that the method of use and treatment of the processed coal medium used therewith have little in common with the stone, gravel or plastic treatment media used in the test reports outlined in the above letter-report either in their physical characteristics or their 10 respective functional roles.

As an imitator of said constant types of treatment media a coal medium should also have a constant adsorptive surface area limited only to its outer surface area. But coal material being structured supposedly from vegetative and animal matter has a tremendous latent potential for providing additional adsorptive surface areas there within. Coal is known to contain a labyrinthian network of sealed capillary sections units structure. Thus if this sealed micro megastructure capillary network of the coal medium was to be opened up subsequent to said 20 expanding procedures, by said leaching process, a tremendous latent potential adsorptive capacity would become available to us. This new source of adsorptive sites would have would have been provided -to us with a minimum effort on our part and at a negligible increase in cost. In reality, a coal-based medium can not only act as efficiently as media which have a constant sly sorptive surface area, when it is freshly mined, but in addition has an automatically controlled self-actuated expansive system.

All the tests done in -the 15 reports recorded in the letter-report were done with raw as mined coal materials which had not been expanded and leached according to the method of the present invention prior to use in the tests. So that it can be seen that such a report could not be considered to be a responsible one, and therefore cannot be used as being indicative of the true functional ability of a coal medium that has been processed according to the method of the present invention. It would be abundantly clear to a competent researcher that comparing the adsorptive capacity of a freshly mined raw coal material with that of a commercial activated carbon, and trying to draw the above responsible conclusions from the exercise, would normally be unworthy of their efforts and would certainly no-t be an acceptable research practice.

If the raw coal material as mined were to be used as a treatment medium and were to be placed in a treatment bed exposed to the elements, the rain would cause the coal material to swell on wetting and to fracture on drying. This process would be duplicated every time the bed was loaded and unloaded with a water-based liquid (such as a liquid polluted effluent stream similar to sewage or industrial liquid wastes) then the expansive self-actuated method of the present invention comes into practice. It is seen therefore that while all types of treatment media may act similarly as filtering media at the

7~3 start, that only the coal medium can expand its available surface areas with each successive cycle of wetting and drying actuated by the subsequent loading and unloading of said treatment beds with said said liquid effluent, thus making the medium superior to other types of media having surface areas which are constant and thus are limited to their outer surface area only.
The coal medium is seen to have continuously expanding surface areas which are available for adsorptive processes. Added to this is the fact that as aforementioned in the second embodiment of the present invention, the multi million labyrinthian sealed capillary sections are opened up and cleansed by said leaching as the expansive process continues, and the expanding coal medium does not slack (a coal-mining term indicating the complete breakdown of coal material) during the expansion process because of said irregular ragged characteristics of said fracturing process of said non-platy coal medium, thus providing many loosely-held mechanical bonds throughout the coal medium structure capable of holding said expanding coal medium together over a long period of time. It has been observed that the aforementioned coal-based medium have been used continuously for a period of over five to ten years without breakdown, and without the replacement of the treatment medium. It will be evident therefore the cost factor of liquid pollutant effluent treatment could be reduced significantly by the use of an expansive self-regenerative treatment medium, such as the processed coal medium of the present invention, which has proved to have long term treatment effectiveness.

7~3 It can be seen therefore, that contrary to published reports, that coal material after processing can be as effective in use as any presently known conventional types of treatment and processing media, and furthermore, in some cases has proved to be equal tough not more effective in use than commercial grades of activated carbon. Thus it is considered that a coal medium is a worthy and reliable successor and a improvement on said other types of presently used and proposed treatment media.

It is also abundantly clear, that the presently used types treatment and processing media have a constant (or fixed) available adsorptive surface area which is limited to its visual outer surface areas only, and thus are physically incapable of expanding their adsorptive surface areas further. While the surface areas of said coal medium can be expanded at will to provide increased external and internal effective sorptive surface areas many times greater than the visual outer surface area of said coal medium, and whose expansion can be controlled and regulated according to the frequency of the loading and unloading of said polluted liquid effluent stream in said treatment beds containing said coal treatment and processing medium therein.

COAL-HUMUSB~SED,TREATMENT&PROCESSING MEDIA
For the purpose of the present invention, the clue coal material after processing is defined as a multipurpose media having a common identity in that it comprises an inseparable mixture of a porous highly-adsorptive almost pyre coal-carbon intimately combined with its original content of fully mature humus to form a coal-humus based treatment and processing media.

When the original clue coal material is processed to this condition with both the first and third portions utilizing a fine 10 particulate coal-carbon and fine particulate coal-humus as an inseparable mixture thereof, and -the second portion having a larger size coal material having said similar characteristics, said inseparable coal-humus based material may be utilized in one or more of three methods. In the first embodiment of the present invention either said fine particulate coal-humus based material or said fine particulate coal-humus based material intermixed with fine particulate fresh organic, potential-humus-making materials may be utilized. Said materials are used either alone or in predetermined formulated combinations thereof, and are 20 intermixed with poor soils to bring said soils into balance with fertile soils having a wide carbon nitrogen ratio of at least 10, or said fine particulate coal-humus based media or said combined coal-humus and fresh organic humus-making mixture thereof are added to fertile soils requiring an additional source of soil nitrogen as a nitrogenous form of manure, said nitrogenous manure application being made as a soil-surface addition after said soils have been seeded or planted. In the second embodiment of the present invention, only said larger size coal-humus based media is utilized. Said inseparable processed larger size coal-humus based medium being positioned within a coal-humus based waste water treatment bed to serve as a multi-purpose treatment and processing medium, wherein either liquid domestic waste water or combined domestic and industrial waste water may be treated together in the same undivided bed without the aid of any form of additional ancillary treatment equipment whatsoever. Whereby, said organic matter content of 10 said polluted waste water is spontaneously removed on contact with said coal-humus based medium by said biological composing method of the present invention. Said composing of said waste water organic being effected by said coal-humus based medium without the production of offensive odors issuing therefrom when said waste water level in said treatment bed is maintained at a level below that of the-top of said coal-humus based treatment medium therein. The remaining waste water-pollutants including toxic or heavy metal contaminants are effectively removed by said adsorptive coal-humus medium by a 20 new tertiary waste water treatment and effluent polishing process as they are passed -through a larger remaining treatment area of said undivided bed containing therein said adsorptive coal-humus based treatment and processing medium. In the third embodiment of the present invention a further treatment-improvement may be provided both said fine particulate and said larger size inseparable coal-humus based treatment and processing media when they are separately prepared to serve in more demanding multi-purpose application Al roles. Wherein said larger size coal-humus based media it subjected to a ho-t or boiling water leaching-bath with controlled agitation to further remove any remaining pollutant-containing clay substances therefrom. Then drying said coal-humus based media to provide an initial expansion-fracturing step in the artificial restructuring of said stable outer surface areas of said coal-humus based medium and continuing said artificial fracturing process to expose its external and internal surface areas and to make said newly exposed areas available for future sorptive and biological activities throughout the life-span of said larger size coal-humus based media. Thus resulting in said progressive development of said coal-humus based medium and the subsequent leaching, capillary renewal, and surface activation as well as the provision of additional new potential sorptive sites.
Wherein said coal-humus based medium is progressively restructured by the self actuated method of the present invention, wherein said coal-humus based medium particles are caused to be expanded then fractured by said wetting and drying cycles of said method of the present invention, and are regulated 20 by the frequency of said waste water loading and unloading into said treatment beds. By this method said natural slacking tendency of said coal-humus based medium is regulated, and is controlled still further by the utilization of non-platy type coal-humus material, being characterized by having a ragged and irregular fracture on breaking. Such coal-humus material is chosen for the purpose because it is able -to provide an artificial mechanical hold on breaking similar to a conventional type expansion joint. The main purpose of such a joint is to ~.~2~7~

provide a method whereby a loosely held interlocking joint such as would be provided by said ragged or irregular fracturing of said coal-humus based medium will result in holding said coal-humus based medium together and thus prevent the early slacking of said coal-humus based medium over an extended period of time.
Such a bond has served to prevent the slacking of a coal-humus based medium used in the treatment of combined high strength domestic and industrial type sewage waste water without failure over periods of from five to ten years of continuous treatment 10 service, without the necessity of replacing the coal-humus based treatment or processing medium. Wherein said new expansive external and internal surface areas are made available to provide a coal-humus based treatment and processing medium with self actuated surface regenerative characteristics, having controlled long term wear life, biologically activated, highly adsorptive, with spontaneous biological composing capabilities, with oxidative and nitrogen generating potential as well as the natural fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. And subjecting said fine particulate clue coal-humus based treatment and 20 processing media a further reducing procedure wherein said coal-humus based media material is reground by a conventional explosion-proof wet grinding process whereby hot or boiling water is utilized in said grinding process as the wet grinding aid or agent, to produce therefrom a quantity of finer size particulate coal-humus based treatment or processing media materials in which the major portion is in the lower-range category of sizings of said reground materials passing through said -200 mesh screen.
Then subjecting said finer sized coal particles to a thorough hot or boiling-water leaching bath with controlled agitation.
Whereby said regrinding and said ho-t water or boiling water leaching of said fine particulate coal-humus based materials results in the provision of a highly porous and adsorptive coal carbon having a high degree of purity, intimately and inseparably intermixed with its original content of said natural coal-humus in an fully mature and immediately available form, as well as its natural nitrogen content. The natural coal carbon, therefore, has been processed without being exposed to open 10 flame, has not been treated with treatment chemicals and thus its natural capillary tube structure is intact and has not been fused as is customary in the manufacture of other forms of commercial activated carbons. Since it is well known in the coal mining industry that the capillaries in coal are of larger diameter than those in commercial types of active carbons, they may have -the ability to adsorb a much wider range of waste water pollutants than conventional commercial activated carbons, and thus help because of their said dual coal-carbon and mature humus content, solve many of the current urgent pollution control and famine relief problems common to peoples in many parts of the world. It is expected, therefore, that the availability of a such a dual type of natural treatment and processing media as is provided by the practicing of the method of the present invention may serve to provide an effective and more economical solution to said problems we are now confronted with, than many schemes now being presented or are under consideration.

The clue coal materials of the invention are unique in that they originate in the Lotte Creek coal deposits in the Province of British Columbia, are now an almost abandoned and unwanted raw coal-dirt resource, have been a continuing source of embarrassment to succeeding governments of British Columbia for many years, and consist of 15 billion tons of said coal-dirt materials almost one third of which consists of clay material.
I've coal dirt deposits are situated close paved roads, rail -transportation, have an adequate available supply of power, 10 and an ample labor source. Processing would be by conventional type equipment, the cost of mining, recovery, processing and handling is economical and is sufficiently low to enable the benefits from its use to be enjoyed in all parts of Canada, and throughout the world.

For example the products of the present invention would use less than 1 1/2 tons of raw coal per ton of coal-humus based product produced, and the expenditure of less than 1/2 hour in processing time and uses no chemicals whatsoever in its activation process.

20 as compared with:

The use of 10 tons of raw coal, with additional activating chemicals, heat processing, the expenditure of fuel energy, labor, time consuming effort which involves some lo hours of processing time to make 1 ton of fused conventional commercial types of activated carbon.

Furthermore, when said expanded and leached primary coal-based products have been subjected to a further reducing and ho-t or boiling-water leaching treatment of the present invention, said coal particles have acquired unique sorptive characteristics without the fusion of their natural capillary sections, whose adsorptive characteristics under full scale commercial testing were found to be equal too, and in some cases superior too, those obtained by certain commercial types of activated carbons used as a control in said -tests. Since the treatment benefits to be 10 gained by the use of active forms carbon are well known throughout the world and the treatment accomplishments achieved by its use is phenomenal, it is expected that with the advent of this new and simpler way of making dual purpose activated carbons and because of the dramatic reduction expected in the price ox the naturally active dual purpose carbons of the present invention, its use will expand in many differing new applications and directions and will become available to peoples all over the world who at the present tumor unable to justify its use because of the present high cost of such carbons.

because of the expected high volume potential sales for the new natural carbons, with their widely diversified application Al roles, where each individual application would require the employment of some tens of thousands or peoples in both domestic and export markets wherein their particular expertise in mining, recovery, initial processing,productresearch, manufacturing, packaging, handling, transportation, application Al design, research, testing, domestic and user country infrastructure, lZ~6~

steel making, structural design, far cay no construction, installation, will be needed and whereby is created new type long term job and career opportunities in Canada and potential user countries, and thus provide new hope and a new way of life for our many young people and older unemployed peoples throughout the world.

In summary:
As a result of the success experienced in the application of a new coal-based odor control product called OUTWORE, which was originally designed to remove the odors from human, animal, poultry, pet and fish wastes, invaluable data was obtained regarding its performance in the uses to which the coal-based product was put in actual practice. Since there were some ten thousand product purchasers and presumably users, from the Provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and the States of Washington, Oregon and California, the operation was deemed to have been very successful.

To describe the various uses to which the coal-based products were put would fill several books, sufficient to say that the Zoo product was successful for use in all the various applications on which it was used. Apart from its use as an odor remover, one of the most successful applications was the use of the carbon-based product to remove odors from human wastes in outhouses.
One observed fact was that in most cases it was reported that users claimed that they would never have to dig another outhouse trench, because the wastes appeared to disintegrate suite rapidly upon contact with the coal material.

Lo I

The aforementioned experiences formed the basis for the world s first coal-based sewage treatment facilities.

Two of the treatment plants were for the treatment of abutter sewage wastes which is extremely odoriferous, and the other was for a combined domestic-cement product plant on Vancouver Island.

The three sewage treatment installations were operated successfully for about ten years, and despite claims to the contrary by detractors, that they would use large quantities of coal and would thus prove to expensive to operate, not one extra ton of coal material was either replaced or added to the treatment beds beds in all that time.

A comment by Mr. F. sesikr Senior Research Engineer, Applied Chemistry Department of the Ontario Research Foundation, Sheridan Park, Ontario on the coal-based sewage treatment systems in British Columbia says in an excerpt "However, whether your treatment is a biological process or a combination of biological and adsorption process is of a secondary importance to the fact, that it is a new, efficient and economic treatment process, which can be further improved by proper design of the process hydraulics and possibly by a more efficient configuration of the carbon bed."

The present invention relates to the production of a biologically compatible, improved, natural type of highly adsorptive activated carbon, from normally inert low sulphur-content raw coal material having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio and also having a fixed or constant surface area, with limited if any sorptive I

capability, and as claimed by local coal scientists an engineers the world over, to have properties similar to those of commonly available filtering media such as sand, gravel, crushed rock and plastic.

Conventional type commercial activated carbons which are commonly used in broad applications ( such as deodorants, decolourants, refining agents, and in pollution control applications) are manufactured out of a specific organic raw material such as coal, bone, and wood. The particular type of raw material used in its manufacture determines its ultimate use. Because it takes about ten or eleven tons of coal, I hours of processing time and the use of strong activating chemicals to make one ton of conventional commercial activated carbon, they are considerably more costly to manufacture and use. Thus conventional commercial activated carbons are normally used only where this high cost may be justified.

By the same token, while the natural activated carbon is less adsorbent in its initial treatment stage, it may, unlike conventional commercial activated carbons, be processed in three separate stages, and in each stage it may be used and further processed in actual practice. For example; after exposure to an initial cycle of wetting, drying and leaching the material becomes a semi-processed treatment and processing medium, and when this method of processing is artificially continued during storage, and in-transit in open topped side or bottom dump railway cars, trucks, barges and/or cargo ships where they are exposed to the full impact of the elemental forces of nature, as I

iota well as the movement of railway cars during their starting, shunting and stopping procedures, they are further subjected to uncontrolled abrasive action within the railway car, by contact with other media particles prior to their arrival at the intended application Al site. Also since a main part of the treatment process is that of exposing both the treatment medium and the waste water under treatment to the forces of the natural elements the treatment medium receives its final stage of processing treatment in actual practice while exposed to the same type of cycles of wetting, drying and leaching that it received in its initial treatment stage, in its in-transit stage, and in actual practice during and between the cycles of waste water loading and unloading of the carbon-humus and wastewater-treatment and processing beds. - .

The new biologically compatible carbon-humus treatment and processing medium is unique among sorptive carbons in that, in addition to being able to perform most of the application Al functions of conventional commercial activated carbons, the fact that it is a natural product which has not been heat treated to make it a fragile structure, or treated with strong activating chemicals which tend to remove the coal chemicals therefrom which are needed by various bacterial life forms as food and energy values, in carrying out their particular tasks in the new widely diversified fields of coal-biotechnology.

It is well known in the coal mining industry and by any householder who has used coal for home heating, that coal materials have a natural tendency to slack when they take on :~2Z6~8 moisture, and to fracture and create a dust when they dry.

Advantage is taken of this seemingly poor engineering quality of coal materials, to create the world s first self- processing affordable natural activated carbon. Where the economics of recovery and processing are sufficiently low as to justify its use and thus permit the natural carbon to be sold and delivered to any application Al area in Canada/ North America and throughout the export markets of the world at a fraction of the cost of conventional types of commercial activated carbons.

In the present invention the conversion of low Selfware content coal materials having a wide carbon ratio into semi processed or fully processed carbon-humus sorptive products and by-products, is done by artificially duplicating those same conditions which create the slacking process in coal. These are providing cycles of wetting and drying cycles where the coal takes on moisture which causes it to swell about 5 per cent (this could be done in the washing plant at the mine site) and exposing the coal materials to a drying process carried out by articial heat, or by exposing the coal materials to radiant heat of the sun. The coal materials are then leached with water to remove soluble substances and adhering materials. This process provides an initial expansion treatment. The expanding of the as mined coal material immediately multiplies its available surface area many times over, and thus makes the coal material a product rather than that having properties similar to those of commonly available filtering media such as crushed stone, gravel, sand or plastic.

1~674~3 The further processing of the semi-processed media in-transit as aforementioned provide a further progression of the development process which provides a wide variety of self-improvement steps which include, the creation of new surface areas, the opening up and cleansing of the presently sealed capillary sections leading off the new surface areas, the activation of the potential sorptive and bacterial work sites, and the development of the full economical potential inherent within the expansive coal medium.

Another worldwide first in the new field of coal biotechnology makes possible the provision of a completely new type of sewage treatment system by which from 99 to 100 per cent of the total and local coliform bacterial and viral content of sewage as well as its content of suspended and/or dissolved organic matter is : removed therefrom by a new biotechnological carbon-humus contact processing method.

further major use is the provision of a new carbon-humus type of material product having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above 10 and a clue base, whereby is provided an economical and plentiful means of replenishing the needs of eroded and depleted soils. Where infertile soils shown by test to have a low carbon/nitrogen ratio of below 10, can be made more fertile by the application of a carbon-humus treatment medium having a carbon/nitrogen of above ten to the extent that an equilibrium is reached. The addition of finely ground biologically compatible carbon-humus media which also contains a fully mature type of humus, trace minerals, fertilizer nitrogen as well as the means Tao of fixing atmospheric nitrogen by the biological degradation of the carbon contained therein and the interaction of nitrogen fixing bacteria.

During its passage through the atmosphere the natural elements such as wind, rain, snow, sleet, air, dew pick up atmospheric nitrogen which has been fixed by lightning, and an added amount of oxygen which it carries with it when it falls to the earth to replenish the exposed areas of the soil with both nitrogen and oxygen.

It has recently been established in an executive review entitled USE OF COAL IN MUNICIPAL WASTE WATER TREATMENT, done by the GREATER VANCOUVER SEWERAGE AND DRAINAGE DISTRICT in September 1986, that most all of the worlds top coal researchers, scientists and engineers scientists in Canada the USE, Europe and Japan have found after spending millions of dollars on tests that coal materials have limited if any sorptive capability. In a study by the present inventor of the papers that were under review, it was found that in every instance the tests were made on coal material as mined, and that all the test procedures used a precut or similar type fine filtering method. The sizings of the fine filtering medium were in the 18 ho 150 range. It was said that while a high degree of organic fines removal was achieved by the precut filtering method, it was found that the medium rapidly became plugged with a coal-fines sewage-sludge mixture and would need to be replaced, thus it was estimated that from 5 to 10 tons of coal fines per million gallons of sewage treated would be needed for such replacement. It was thought I

74~

that the cost of such treatment would be prohibitive, unless the coal fines could be borrowed from an adjacent coal-fired electric generating plant situated near by and then the coal-fines sewage-sludge mixture could be returned to the plant and burned.

It will be evident that most all the aforementioned tests were negative as far as proving that coal materials had any valuable sorptive properties. It will also be evident that while these same coals tested had an adsorption value ranging from 1 to a top adsorptive capability of 4 per cent, they were tested in an as received or as mined state and were compared using a top grade commercial activated carbon as the control.

It follows therefore that if these same coal materials had been processed according to the method of the present invention many of the uses for which these aforementioned failed worldwide tests were made, would have been successful, and more effective and economical end-use applications and/or products made thereby.

For example; it has been found that when stack vases containing large quantities of Selfware dioxide are passed through as-mined coal materials having low sorptive properties, that they are able 20 to remove these acid producing substances repeatedly in as many as 40 separate applications, while activated carbon used as the control could remove many times the amount, but if the natural activated carbon was to be improved by the use of the method of the present invention a simpler, practical and more economical from of acid rain treatment could be made available.

The carbon-humus medium used in the present invention consist of fine particulate -200 mesh size, 200 mesh size, and larger sized lump carbon-humus materials having a mesh size of from 1/4 inch up through 3 inches to 5 inches and varying combinations thereof, dependent upon the solids content and flow volume of the waste water being treated.

Due to the dependency of our mega-project coal mines and their large scale recovery, transportation, storage, loading and shipping facilities on our sagging coal export markets, it seems evident that a new type of coal-based product and/or by-products that cannot readily be duplicated would protect what markets we now have, as well as provide a competition-proof widely diversified new range of products having large scale marketing potential.

In the BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THY DRAWINGS on page 16 of the disclosure Figure 4, and the drawing of Figure 4 in the new pages of the disclosure attached there is provided a COMPETITION-PROOF, COAL PROCESSING/MARKETING STRATEGY which is believed to provide a viable solution to at least some of our coal marketing problems.

Having illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the invention it should be apparent the invention permits of modification in arrangement and detail. I claim all such modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (18)

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing multi-purpose surface active carbon-humus treatment and processing media from low sulphur content coal materials having a wide carbon nitrogen ratio, for use in the production of commercial quantities of natural fertilizer nitrogen from sewage-wastewater, sewage effluents, sewage sludge, and degraded sewage organic sludge as well as decimated fecal coliform bacterial sludge, the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, and the oxidation of carbon in said organic matter and said carbon-humus medium, which comprises the steps of:

a. crushing and screening a low sulphur-content inert raw coal material, having as mined an apparent stable outer surface area with limited if any surface-active capability, and a known wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above 10, to produce therefrom as separate quantities thereof environmentally and biologically compatible fine particulate raw coal material having a maximum particle diameter passing through a 200 mesh size screen and a larger size raw coal material having a freely filterable lump sizing ranging from said 200 mesh size up to five inches, b. expanding said apparent stable outer surface area of said inert fine particulate and larger sized coal material by said wetting, drying and leaching procedures, and using said expanding procedures to restructure said external and internal surface areas and cleanse the vast capillary sections thereupon to make of said newly exposed surface areas and capillary sections active surface area sites, c. leaching said fine particulate and said larger sized expanded coal material with hot or cold water to remove water-soluble and adhering substances therefrom, while leaving said coal-chemical content of bacterial food and energy values intact therein, d. providing by said initial wetting, drying and leaching treatment and processing cycles a semi-processed carbon-humus treatment and processing medium, e. screening, comminuting and/or grinding selected non-toxic rapidly-degradable solid or liquified organic material or wastes thereof having a high organic carbon content and a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of at least 10, to produce therefrom a fine particulate liquid and/or solid organic-matter product of from about 200 mesh size up to about 1/4 inch mesh size, f. providing a shallow horizontal treatment container having an inlet and an outlet means, with an impervious base and sides, said base slightly sloped towards said outlet means, said container also having sides of a sufficient height such that said carbon-humus treatment medium may be placed therein to an overal depth of not more than 12 inches to attain best treatment effectiveness, with a wastewater holding capacity of at least one days supply of said wastewater being treated, g. mixing said organic matter within and/or upon said fine particulate or larger sized semi-processed carbon-humus media such that said organic matter is exposed to and/or in contact with both said semi-processed carbon-humus material and said natural elemental and bacterial forces to bring about the composing of said organic matter, h. providing an improved degree of aerobic biological treatment treatment to organically polluted waste water as compared to that of conventional aerobic treatment systems, by exposing said wastewater in said exposed shallow containers to the full force of the natural elements during its treatment and processing prior to its discharge to surface waters, i. causing the natural circulation of oxygenated elements in said elemental forces to flow continuously into and throughout said carbon-humus media particles and said organically polluted wastewater being treated therein, many hundreds of times per hour by wind and heat action, j. providing a first surface activating procedure by said initial wetting, drying and leaching procedures to said semi-processed carbon-humus medium and providing a continuity of said surface activating wetting, drying and leaching cycles subsequent to said initial treatment cycle by subjecting said semi-processed treatment and processing medium to further cycles of said processing during its transportation to, and prior to, its arrival at its intended applicational area, k. utilizing the known slacking tendency of coal materials to create a self controlled, processing and treatment medium, wherein said selected coal materials are caused to provide a wide variety of self-improvement roles including that of self processing, creating new surface areas, activating said surface areas, developing the capillary sections thereof, and developing the full economic potential inherent in said as-mined coal materials.

2. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising selecting a low sulphur content coal material having a wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of above 10, having an apparent, stable or fixed outer and inner surface area, and an irregular fracture upon crushing to provide an artificial type of loosely held interlocking expansion joint when said coal material tends to slack on said exposure to said natural elements, said coal materials chosen from the group consisting of low sulphur content metallurgical or thermal coals or wastes thereof or any type of coal, coal wastes or coal associated materials whatsoever meeting said criteria.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising selecting a non-toxic organic material or waste thereof having a known wide carbon/nitrogen ratio of at least 10 as determined by conventional agricultural tests, chosen from the group of decomposible vegetative matter, including garden produce or wastes thereof, animal, poultry, farm animal, cattle, human domestic wastes, sewage organic matter, sewage sludge, forestry wastes, organic manufacturing or food wastes and the recovery, cultivation, harvesting and processing of the flora and fauna of the sea and/or its environs, as well as any type of non-toxic organic matter whatsoever meeting the above criteria.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising expanding the surface area of said low sulphur raw coal material by saturating said coal with water for from 1/2 hour to four hours.

5. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising drying said coal materials to remove the water therefrom by heating said coal materials with radiant energy for from one to four hours.

6. A method as recited in Claim 4, further comprising exposing said coal materials to at least seven wetting, drying and leaching cycles.

7. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising exposing said coal materials to the full impact of the natural elements consisting of rain, heat, wind, snow, dew, sleet, freezing and thawing.

8. A method as recited in Claim 7, further comprising improving the degree of aerobic biological treatment of said wastewater by utilizing said fall-out oxygenated content of said rain, heat, wind, snow, dew, sleet, freezing and thawing in said treatment.

9. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising leaching said coal materials with a material selected from the group consisting of hot or cold water, hot or cold air, steam, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, and combinations thereof.

10. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising providing an initial treatment and processing cycle of wetting, drying and leaching to said crushed and sized coal material to create said semi-processed carbon-humus medium therefrom prior to its leaving said treatment and processing plant.

11. A method as recited in Claim 10, further comprising utilizing the elapsed time period between said initial treatment and processing cycle at the plant site and its delivery time at its intended point of application to provide a continuity of said treatment and processing cycles in-transit.

12. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising removing said highly infectious, contaminant load of fecal coliform bacteria and viral forms, as well as its content of highly toxic contaminants, prior to its discharge to surface waters by means of said surface composting and bacterial decimation processing procedures using said fine particulate and said larger sized carbon-humus treatment and processing medium.

13. A method as recited in Claim 10, further comprising preventing the formation of dead-sea-type conditions in our seas or waterways by removing the ingredients necessary for the building of such dead sea conditions from said sewage-wastewater prior to their discharge to surface waters.

14. A method as recited in Claim 13, further comprising preventing the formation of a toxic curtain-wall in our seas and waterways by removing said lethal contaminants from our wastewater prior to their discharge to said surface waters.

15. A method as recited in Claim 13, further comprising preventing the destruction of our tourism industry by the fouling of our receational areas and beaches by the removal of polluted organic matter and the decimation of said fecal coliform bacteria from said wastewater by means of said contact treatment and processing with said carbon-humus medium.

16. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising producing, recovering and concentrating said fertilizer nitrogen from said natural nitrogenous organic matter, atmospheric nitrogen fixation, organic carbon oxidation, carbon-humus oxidation, sewage-wastewater organic sludges, and bacterial decimation sludges and that nitrogen collected in said elemental natural product fall-out, and producing, collecting, and concentrating said fertilizer nitrogen from said nitrogenous materials in said sewage-wastewater effluents for use as nitrogen-rich agricultural products and by-products.

17. A method as recited in Claim 1, further comprising using coal-based biotechnology to enhance the utilization and applicational value of said natural multi-purpose, carbon-humus media products and by-products.

18. A method as recited in Claim 17, further comprising providing a viable and affordable, competition-proof, domestic and export, carbon-humus processing/marketing strategy.