GB2149683A - Traveling bed ion exchange apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A fluid is contacted with a flowable ion exchange material by passing the contacting fluid through a moving bed (19) of the ion exchange resin in a direction essentially perpendicular to the direction of flow of the ion exchange resin bed. The ion exchange bed (19), e.g. of an ion exchange resin, is passed horizontally over a fluid distributor, e.g. of successive gravel, gravel and sand layers (11, 12, 13), the ion exchange material being fed into the bed by an inlet (15) and withdrawn through an outlet (16). The liquid to be contacted with the ion exchange bed (19) is conducted to the fluid distributor (11, 12, 13) by a perforated inlet pipe (14) from which the liquid moves upwardly through the ion exchange bed (19) and thence through an outlet (18). The velocity of the contacting liquid is sufficient to maintain the ion exchange bed (19) in an essentially non-filtering fluidized state. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Traveling Bed lon Exchange Apparatus The present invention relates to a traveling bed ion exchange or ion concentrating apparatus and to a process employing such an apparatus.

Ion exchange or ion concentrating processes are well known in the art and generally employ a fixed bed of an ion exchange or ion concentrating resin which is maintained in contact or a flow through apparatus or column such that the contacting liquid passes through the apparatus in parallel countercurrent flow to the ion exchange or concentrating resin beads.

Each of these processes have one or more disadvantages such as (1) high energy requirements (pressure drop due to flow), (2) plugging of the ion exchange bed by particulate material such as, for example, dirt, fine resin and the like, (3) necessity of designing fixed bed units with 50100% empty volume above the resin for backwashing purposes to remove particulate material from the bed, (4) frequent necessity to perform an ion exchange operation where the flow rates of the different fluids are greatly different causing design and distribution problems.

One or more of these disadvantages have now been at least mitigated by the apparatus and process of the present invention wherein a bed of an ion exchange or ion concentrating resin travels along a plane and the fluid stream to be contacted passes up through the traveling resin bed in a non-parallel, substantially perpendicular flow (i.e., within about 15 of perpendicular) with respect to the planarflowofthe resin bed.

For purposes of brevity, such ion exchange resins and/or material shall be referred to hereinafter as ion exchange resins regardless of what method of exchange, complexing, coordination, absorption, adsorption and/or removal and the like actually occurs.

Processes for concentrating or removing ions from fluids are well known and usually consist of (1) a resin loading step or stage and (2) a resin regeneration step or stage. Each of the steps or stages can be performed in one process unit or in separate units.

Representative of such known processes are described in U.S. Patents 2,671,714; 2,772,143; 2,814,399; 2,897,051 and 3,056,651.

The present invention is particularly directed to an improvement in such a process and apparatus in that the contacting fluid is passed through an essentially non-filtering traveling bed of an ion exchange or ion concentrating resin in a direction which is substantially perpendicular to the flow of the traveling resin bed. By substantially perpendicular is meant that the angle between the flow of the contacting fluid through the traveling ion exchange resin bed does not exceed about 15 to either side of a line perpendicular to the plane of flow of the traveling ion exchange resin bed.

Accordingly the present invention provides an ion exchange resin contactor comprising a horizontally disposed shell; a horizontally disposed liquid distributor means in the shell; a bed of flowable ion exchange material supported on the distributor means; means for continuously feeding into the shell and means for continuously removing from the shell ion exchange material from the ion exchange bed such that the ion exchange bed travels horizontally along the distributor means in the shell; means for conducting a contacting liquid to be treated to the distributor means and for passing the liquid upwardly through the distributor means and upwardly through the ion exchange bed in a direction substantially perpendicular (as hereinbefore defined) to the plane of flow of the ion exchange bed and at a velocity sufficient to maintain the ion exchange bed in an essentially non-filtering fluidized state; and a means for removing the contacting liquid from the shell after contact with the ion exchange bed.

In a second aspect there is provided a process for concentrating ions or removing ions from a liquid by contacting the liquid with a flowable ion exchange material, wherein the liquid is passed upward through a horizontally traveling bed of an ion exchange material in a direction substantially perpendicular (as hereinbefore defined) to the direction of the plane of flow of the traveling bed of ion exchange material, passing the liquid upward through a distributor means to uniformly distribute the liquid priorto contact with the traveling bed of ion exchange material, fluidizing the bed of ion exchange material by passing of the liquid into and through the ion-exchange bed, and arranging the distributor and the traveling bed of ion exchange material within the confines of the same apparatus.

Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view along a longitudinal axis of a contactor apparatus containing a traveling bed ion exchange resin.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional end view of the contactor apparatus.

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional end view of a contactor apparatus containing a traveling bed ion exchange resin divided by a plurality of baffles.

Figure 4 is a top view of the apparatus of Figure 3 showing the passageways formed by a plurality of the baffles.

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic view of a system employing several ion exchange contactors connected in a series relationship.

Figure 6 is a cross sectional view of a distributing means.

Figure 7 is a perspective view of another distributor means.

With reference to Figure 1, a traveling bed ion exchange resin apparatus of the invention generally comprises a housing or shell 10, a graded bed which functions as a fluid distributor and which contains successive layers of a coarse gravel 11, a fine gravel 12, and sand 13. An inlet conduit 14, having perforations 17 extends near the bottom of the housing for dispersing a contacting fluid throughout the length of the traveling ion exchange resin bed.

The housing is also provided with an ion exchange resin inlet 15 and outlet 16, and a contacting fluid outlet 18. The housing 10 also contains a layer of the ion exchange resin 19 above the layer of sand 13.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional end view of the apparatus illustrated in Figure 1 showing the housing 10, the graded bed of the layers of coarse gravel 11; fine gravel 12, and sand 13. Also shown in the end view of Figure 2 is the inlet conduit 14 for the contacting fluid and ion exchange resin 19.

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional end view of a traveling bed ion exchange resin apparatus containing one or more baffles to form a flow path for the resin of greater length in a relatively more compact area. Instead of a single fluid inlet conduit 14 as shown in the apparatus of Figures 1 and 2, each of the bed sections formed by the subdividing baffles is provided with a separate fluid inlet conduit 14. A single ion exchange resin inlet 15 and outlet 16 and a single contacting fluid outlet 18 is provided in the housing.

Figure 4 is a top view of the apparatus of Figure 3 showing the interleafing baffles and fluid inlet conduit in the housing 10 and the single ion exchange resin inlet 15 and outlet 16.

In the apparatus illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, the baffles 20, define compartments in the housing 10 which are open at one end and which contain the traveling ion exchange resin bed such that the flow is lengthwise from one compartment to the other.

Within each compartment, the traveling bed of ion exchange resin is contacted with fresh liquid from inlet conduits 14 which are connected to a common header 21.

In some instances, it may be desirable to employ counter-current staging wherein the contacting liquid overflow from the last resin stage is collected and employed as the feed for a preceeding stage.

Such could be employed to achieve a higher overall efficiency and one of such means for accomplishing this is illustrated in Figure 5 in which a plurality of traveling bed ion exchange resin contactors such as are illustrated in Figures 1--4 are employed. The individual contractors are designated as TBC-1, TBC-2, TBC-N and are connected in series employing counter-current flow of the contacting fluid with respect to the traveling ion exchange resin bed in that the fresh contacting fluid is fed to the traveling bed ion exchange resin contactorwhich is last in the series with respect to the feed of fresh ion exchange resin contactor etc.Fresh ion exchange resin, designated FIR, is fed to the first traveling bed ion exchange resin contactorTBC-1 and subsequently into the subsequent contactors TBC2 through TBC-N. The Spent Contacting Fluid, SCF, is discharged from the contactor which is first in the seriesTBC-1. Likewise, the loaded ion exchange resin, LIR, is discharged from the contactor which is last in the series, TBC-N.

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of an alternative means for distributing the contacting fluid. This distributor would replace the graded bed distributing means illustrated in Figures 1,2 and 3.

As can readily be seen in Figure 6, this distributor 22, is constructed of a plurality of channel members 23 which are maintained, by a means not shown, in a spaced apart relationship. The treating fluid after entering the contactor apparatus via, preferably, a perforated conduit, not shown, passes through the distributor 22, as illustrated by the arrows 24. The space "d" in each instance being adjustable, by means not illustrated, so as to control flow and pressure drop through the distributor 22. The distributor 6 is arranged in an ion exchange resin contactor such that the ion exchange resin would preferably travel in a direction perpendicular to the length of the channels 23, as shown by the large two headed arrow 25.

Figure 7 is a sectional view of another distributor which is composed of at least two spaced apart corrugated sheets of material, 10 and 11, each sheet being provided with a multiplicity of holes (perforations) 12 and 13 respectively, said sheets being aligned with respect to the holes (perforations) in each sheet in a mannerto produce a tortuous path for the liquid flowing therethrough, so as to prevent linear flow of liquid through adjacent sheets.

If desired the distributor can be constructed of 3,4 or more perforated sheets. The material of construction of the sheets is not critical so long as it is essentially non-reactive or non-corrosive when in contact with the treating components or the components being treated.

In the contactors of the present invention, the graded bed distributor and/or support can be prepared from materials other than gravel and sand so long as the material is inert to the ion exchange resin and the contacting liquid. Suitable materials include ceramic or plastic tower packing materials such as Berl saddles, Raschig and Lessing rings, and the like. The purpose of the graded bed or other distributor is to uniformly distribute the incoming contacting fluid and to create a support upon which the ion exchange resin can move. The graded bed can be employed in combination with other distributing means and also a single grade of particulate matter can be employed in combination with other distributing means.

Other methods for uniformly distributing the contacting fluid over the area of the traveling ion exchange resin bed are disclosed in Chemical Engineers'Handbook, Fifth Edition, McGraw-Hill, 1973, pp. 47to pup.555, including, as distributors, perforated pipes, tube banks, and as distriDutor and/or support, perforated plates and screens, as well as combinations thereof and the like.

Irrespective of the particular distribution means, it is so constructed that during operation it does not substantially filter out any suspended solid filterable material which may be contained in the liquid being treated. Accordingly, the process and apparatus of the present invention is particularly useful when the contacting liquid contains suspended matter having a particle size of ~ about 0.01 inch (0.0254 cm.), particularly ~ about 0.008 inch (0.02032 cm.).

The process and apparatus of the present invention is suitable for any ion exchange or ion concentrating process either anionic or cationic or neutral such as for example, water softening, partial demineralizing, uranium recovery from ores, recovery of copper and other soluble metals from water, sugar purification, brine purification, acid recovery, recovery of MgCI2 from seawater, and the like.

The ion exchange resins can be either anionic or cationic depending upon the ion desired to be removed from the contacting fluid. In addition to the traditional ion exchange resins wherein an ion from the ion exchange resin is replaced with an ion from the liquid being treated, other particulate resins and substances may be employed in the process and apparatus herein described such as, for example complexing, zeolites, chelating, sequestering, coordination, absorption, and/or adsorption materials which can be either anionic, cationic or neutral and which remove ions or molecules without replacement of the ions.

In those instances where it is desired to increase the quantity of fluid being treated but the velocity is such that the height of the traveling resin bed is at a maximum with respect to the dimensions of contactor apparatus, the weight of the ion exchange resin can be increased according to the procedure described in United States application serial No.

307,829 filed October 2,1981.

The following examples are illustrative of the invention but are not to be construed as to limiting the scope thereof in any manner.

EXAMPLE 1 An apparatus similar to that of Figures 1 and 2 was employed in which the housing had a dimension of approximately 2' xl 6' x4' (0.61 mx4.88 mix 1.22 m). The housing contained a graded bed of 6 inches (15.24 cm) of coarse gravel, 3 inches (7.62 cm) of fine gravel and 3 inches (7.62 cm) of sand. Seawater was passed through a perforated 3-inch (7.62 cm) O.D. pipe at a rate of 100 gallons per minute (6.3091/s). Through the resin inlet was fed a mixture of 60 volume percent DOWEX 50-X8 (50--100 mesh) ion exchange resin in a feed liquor or river water and ion exchange resin containing 0.15 meq.*/ml calcium ions, 1.7 meq./ml sodium ions and 0.1 meq./ml magnesium ions.

The seawater containing 75% salinity and 950 ppm** magnesium ions was passed up through the graded bed and through the traveling bed of ion exchange resin in a direction essentially perpendicular to the flow of the ion exchange resin resulting in an ion exchange fluidized bed height of about 20 inches (50.8 cm). The contacted seawater was removed from the apparatus through an outlet which was positioned at a distance of approximately 2 feet (0.61 m) above the top of the traveling ion exchange bed. The seawater containing about 500 ppm magnesium ions was then removed from the overflow. The average resin velocity was about 0.8 ft/min (0.004 m/s) and the average seawater velocity was about 0.6 ft/min (0.003 m/s). The volume ratio of seawater to ion exchange resin was about 15:1.The ion exchange resin was removed from the opposite * milliequivalents **parts per million end of its feed inlet and was at a concentration of about 60 percent by volume in seawater-river water and contained 0.77 meq. of Mg++/ml of resin. The ion exchange resin was then separated from the seawater-river water in a settling tank and regenerated with NaCI. The regeneration process employing NaCI to strip MgCI2 from the loaded resin can be performed by known methods so as to produce a MgCI2 solution in water. Such a MgCI2 solution can be partially dehydrated and fed to an electrolytic magnesium cell for the production and recovery of magnesium metal and chlorine. The spent seawater was then discharged as a waste stream.Such a stream can be employed to carry the ion exchange resin instead of the river water employed above.

EXAMPLE 2 A 2 ft. (0.61 m) widex 125ft. (38.1 m) long traveling bed ion exchange contactor employing a 12 inch (30.48 cm) settled resin depth of DOWEX 50, 50-100 mesh ion exchange resin was employed to treat a river water stream containing a hardness of 200 ppm as CaCO3 at a rate of 850 gpms. The thus treated water had a hardness of CaCO3 of only 10 ppm.

EXAMPLE 3 (A) Present invention Data were collected on a 2 ft (0.61 m) wide by 125 ft. (38.1 m) long traveling bed contactor using an 8 inch (20.32 cm) settled depth of DOWEX 50,50-100 mesh ion exchange resin having an equilibrium loading value of 0.82 milliequivalents (meq.) of Mg++ per ml. After passing 16 bed volumes* of 75% salinity sea water through the contactor, the resin had a loading of 0.74 meq. Mg++/ml which was an efficiency of 90%.

(B) Comparative experiment A single stage hydroclone resin-seawater contactor employing essentially the same ion exchange resin was operated and required 30 bed volumes* of 75% salinity seawater to achieve the same resin loading.

The above clearly demonstrates the improved efficiency of the traveling bed ion exchange contactor and process employing same over a single stage ion exchange contactor not of the traveling bed type in that less seawater need be contacted to achieve the same resin loading value when employing the contactor and process of the present invention.

EXAMPLE 4 Atraveling bed ion exchange apparatus was constructed of 1/4" (0.635 cm) plexiglass panels. The * Bed volume is a dimensionless measure of the volume of the contacting fluid based on the settled volume of the resin V liquid (VB= V resin inside length and width were 18 inches (45.72 cm) and 6 inches (15.24 cm), respectively. The height was 15 inches (38.1 cm). Attached to the front wall and running parallel to, and three inches (7.62 cm) from each side wall, was an internal path separation wall 8 inches (20.32 cm) high. It extended only 15 inches (38.1 cm) down the length of the bed. This left a 3 inch (7.62 cm) space in which the traveling resin could turn 1800 and move toward the front wall.

A 5 inch (12.7 cm) high weirwall was attached perpendicularly to, and running between, the path separation wall and the right wall. The weir wall was 3--1/4" (8.255 cm) from the front wall blocking the right path of the bed. This positioning created a 3--1/4"x3" (8.255 cmx7.62 cm) resin collector, at the end of the traveling bed path.

An effluent trough was attached to the left wall and was supported by the front and back walls of the traveling bed. The trough was two inches (5.08 cm) wide and one inch (2.54 cm) deep. It extended through the front wall for a distance of eleven inches (27.94 cm). There were three one-eighth inch (0.3175 cm) holes drilled in the center of the trough at four, eight, and twelve inches (10.16,2032 and 30.48 cm) from the back wall. A drip lip extended downward, at the front end of the trough, for one and one quarter inches (3.175 cm).

The feed input apparatus consisted of a 3/8" (0.9525 cm) stainless steel tubes blocked off at the back end. In each tube there were thirty-fourthree- thirty seconds inch (0.238125 cm) holes drilled one inch (2.54 cm) apart. The holes were in two columns, 90" degrees apart and one column began and ended one-half inch (1.27 cm) ahead of the other. The tubes extended 17 inches (43.18 cm) into the bed from the front wall and were positioned one inch (2.54 cm) above the bottom. The tubes were connected by elbows and T's outside the front wall of the traveling bed so that feed coming in would flow into the bed in even distribution throughout the length of the bed.

A one-half inch (1.27 cm) plastic tube connected the stainless steel flow distributors to a pump adjusted by a ball valve to flow at three gallons per minute per square foot (2.04 liters per second per square meter). From the pump to the feed reservoir, there ran another one-half inch (1.27 cm) tube. The feed reservoir consisted of a plastic fifty-five gallon (208 I) drum with two hundred liters of feed.

In the center of the bottom of the resin collector (defined by the weir wall, the front wall, the right wall, and the path separation wall) there was a hole drilled and threaded to accommodate a threeeighths inch (0.9525 cm) tubing elbow. The elbow was screwed into the bottom panel and attached on the outside to a one-half inch (1.27 cm) valve. From the bali valve there extended a one-half inch (1.27 cm) I.D. black rubber hose, it attached to a Gorman Rupp Model 12500--13 vibrating pump. Another one-half inch (1.27 cm) hose extended from the pump discharge to a bucket. The resin collector, tubing elbow, valve, hose, pump, and bucket made up the resin removal system for the traveling bed.

The resin input system consisted of a six and one-half inch, (16.51 cm) funnel with a three inch (7.62 cm) extention of rubber hose on the bottom. It was positioned so that resin would be fed into the front end of the bed in the left path and two inches (5.08 cm) from the front wall. Before the experiment was run, four and one-half inches (11.43 cm) of a cleaned coarse sand, ranging in particle size from 8 to 50 mesh U.S. Standard, was placed in the bed as an additional flow distributor.

The feed The feed for the traveling bed experiment was made up to be (u30 ppm Cm++. To make 200 liters of feed, 23.6 g CuSO4- 5H2O was added to 200 liters of Dl H2O. In addition, 2.85 g FeCI2 4H2O was added to the feed to give an iron content of N4 ppm Fe The resin A chelating picolylamine resin #XFS43084 available from The Dow Chemical Company was used for this experiment. Total quantity used was N1200 cc resin.

The experiment The feed solution of N32 ppm Cutf was upflowed into the traveling bed at 3 gpm/ft2. Temperature of feed=31 C, pH of feed =2.75. The feed was allowed to enter the system until it overflowed through the effluent trough. At that time, a stop was started.

Resin was added to the system at a rate of 100 cc resin per minute. At the end of each minute, a 20 cc plastic syringe with a rubber tube attached was extended into the bed at the center of the turnaround point. Two samples of effluent were drawn about one inch (2.54 cm) above the resin and/or sand. Atotal of seventeen samples were taken in this manner A feed sampie was also taken from the feed reservoir and effluent samples (3) from the effluent trough were taken at 5, 11, and 17 minutes intervals into the run.

The resin put into the system flowed down the left path of the bed to the back wall, turned around the path separation wall, and moved back to the front of the bed. It moved to the weir wall, and as excess resin was added through the funnel, resin at the weir wall was pumped into the resin collector and pumped into a bucket. At the end of the sampling of Sample &num;17, the feed pump was turned off.

The results The samples from this experiment were analyzed on a Perkin Elmer Model 2380 atomic absorption spectrometer. The results were as follows: Bed volume Sample effluent ppm Cu++ Feed 0 32 1 14.1 20 2 28.14 19 3 42.3 18.7 4 56.3 18 5 70.5 18 6 84.6 18.5 7 98.7 18 8 112.8 17.8 9 126.9 18 10 141.1 18.6 11 155.2 19.6 12 169.3 19 13 183.4 18.5 14 197.5 18.7 15 211.6 20 16 225.7 21.5 17 240.1 21.5 It should be noted that Sample 1 was taken before the resin reached the turn-around where the sampling was done. Therefore, it is safe to say that the sand itself had some attraction for the copper ion. The numbers also show that when the resin has passed the sampling point (at between Sample 2 and Sample 3) a drop of N2 ppm was observed.

Claims (22)

1. An ion exchange resin contactor comprising a horizontally disposed shell; a horizontally disposed liquid distributor means in the shell; a bed of flowable ion exchange material supported on the distributor means; means for continuously feeding into the shell and means for continuously removing from the shell ion exchange material from the ion exchange bed such that the ion exchange bed travels horizontally along the distributor means in the shell; means for conducting a contacting liquid to be treated to the distributor means and for passing the liquid upwardly through the distributor means and upwardly through the ion exchange bed in a direction substantially perpendicular (as hereinbefore defined) to the plane of flow of the ion exchange bed and at a velocity sufficient to maintain the ion exchange bed in an essentially non-filtering fluidized state; and a means for removing the contacting liquid from the shell after contact with the ion exchange bed.

2. A contactor as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the ion exchange material comprises resin beads of a size sufficient to be fluidized by the passage of the treating fluid therethrough to the extent that suspended filterable material having a particle size about 0.01 inch (0.254 mm) will not be substantially filtered from the fluid, and wherein the conducting means is of a size sufficient to carry the treating fluid at a velocity such as to maintain the filterable material suspended in the treating liquid while passing through the distributor means and bed of ion exchange resin beads.

3. A contactor as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 wherein the distributor means comprises a graded bed(s); a perforated pipe(s); a tube bank(s); a perforated plate(s); a screen(s); a tower packing; a channel member(s) or a perforated corrugated sheet(s); or a combination thereof.

4. A contactor as claimed in Claim 3 wherein the distributor means is a graded bed comprising at least one layer of a coarse particulate material and a layer of sand, and wherein the ion exchange bed travels over the layer of sand.

5. A contactor as claimed in Claim 3 wherein the liquid distributor means is constructed of an upper series of two or more adjacent channel members associated with an opposing lower series of two or more channel members, the channel members being arranged in a manner which causes the liquid to flow within the confines of the channel members so as to provide a substantially uniform upward flow of liquid between the channel members of the upper series and thence through the ion exchange bed.

6. A contactor as claimed in Claim 3 wherein the liquid distributor means is constructed of a plurality of corrugated sheets which are provided with perforations and which are aligned such that the flow of liquid therethrough is in a tortuous manner thereby providing a substantially uniform flow of liquid upwardly through the ion exchange bed.

7. A contactor as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, including one or more baffles in the shell extending along the length of travel of the ion exchange bed in a manner such that the precontacted fluidized ion exchange bed is separately contacted with a fresh contacting liquid.

8. A contactor as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the ion exchange material is an absorption, adsorption, coordination, chelating, sequestering or complexing resin or material and the contacting liquid is water containing a material which the ion exchange material is capable of removing.

9. A process for concentrating ions or removing ions from a liquid by contacting the liquid with a flowable ion exchange material, wherein the liquid is passed upward through a horizontally traveling bed of an ion exchange material in a direction substantially perpendicular (as hereinbefore defined) to the direction of the plane of flow of the traveling bed of ion exchange material, passing the liquid upward through a distributor means to uniformly distribute the liquid priorto contact with the traveling bed of ion exchange material, fluidizing the bed of ion exchange material by passing of the liquid into and through the ionexchange bed, and arranging the distributor and the traveling bed of ion exchange material within the confines of the same apparatus.

10. A process as claimed in Claim 9 wherein the distributor means comprises a graded bed(s); a perforated pipe(s); a tube bank(s); a perforated plate(s); a screen(s); a tower packing; a channel member(s); or a perforated corrugated sheet(s); or any combination thereof.

11. A process as claimed in Claim 10 wherein the distributing means is a graded bed of at least one layer of a coarse particulate material and a layer of sand, and wherein the ion exchange bed travels over the layer of sand.

12. A process as claimed in Claim 10 further including the step of constructing the distributor means of an upper series of two or more adjacent channel members associated with an opposing lower series of two or more channel members, arranging the channel members in a manner which causes the liquid to flow within the confines of the channel members so as to provide a substantially uniform upward flow of the liquid between the channel members of the upper series and thence through the ion exchange bed.

13. A process as claimed in Claim 10 wherein the distributor means is constructed of a plurality of corrugated sheets which are provided with perforations and which are aligned such that the flow of liquid therethrough is in a tortuous manner.

14. A process as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 13 wherein the ion-exchange material is a cation exchange resin and the contacting liquid is water.

15. A process as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 14 wherein the ion exchange material is an absorption, adsorption, coordination, chelating, sequestering or complexing resin or material and the contacting liquid is water containing a material which the ion exchange material is capable of removing.

16. A process as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 15, wherein the liquid contains particulate matter suspended therein, and wherein the traveling bed of ion exchange material is essentially non-filtering.

17. A process as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 16, wherein the particulate matter is filterable and has a particle size of less than 0.01 in (0.254 mm).

18. An ion concentrating or removing process wherein a liquid is treated by contacting the liquid with a flowable ion exchange material in a continuous manner; the process comprising: (A) establishing an elongate, continuous horizontally traveling, bed of ion exchange particies; (B) passing the liquid through a distributor means for uniformly distributing the liquid in a manner so as to provide for a continuous flow of the liquid upward through the bed of ion exchange material in a direction substantially perpendicular (as hereinbefore defined) to the direction of flow of the horizontally traveling bed of ion exchange material and at a rate sufficient to maintain the bed in a fluidized, essentially non-filtering state; (C) providing the distributing means as a support along which the fluidized bed of ion exchange material moves; ; (D) arranging the distributing means and the bed of ion exchange material within the confines of the same apparatus; and (E) feeding the ion exchange material to one end of the apparatus and withdrawing the ion exchange material from the other end of the apparatus after contact with the liquid.

19. An ion exchange resin contactor substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

20. A process for concentrating ions or removing ions from a liquid substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

21. A liquid from which ions have been removed by a process as claimed in any one of Claims 9 to 18 or 20.

22. An ionic or ion-containing product comprising ions concentrated in a process as claimed in any one of Claims 9 to 18 or 20.