US 12447463 B2Patent grantUnited States

Natural-Fiber Clay Composite for Water Cleanup

Official patent title

Method for making bentonite/natural fiber nanocomposite

Arabic title: طريقة لصنع مركب نانوي من البنتونيت/الألياف الطبيعية

Invention

Problem

Dyes and heavy metals can persist in contaminated water, while conventional sorbents may not capitalize on renewable fibers and locally available mineral resources.

Why it matters

A natural-fiber and bentonite adsorbent could support lower-resource water-treatment research and agricultural-waste valorization if performance and environmental safety are confirmed.

Approach

The process extracts nanocellulose from date-palm leaflets, prepares nano-bentonite from Khulays Mine clay, disperses both in water, and applies drying, alkylamine treatment, heating, and milling. The resulting composite is proposed for adsorbing dyes and heavy metals.

Who may benefit

Potential beneficiaries include water-remediation researchers, natural-fiber processors, clay producers, agricultural-waste programs, adsorbent manufacturers, and industrial-effluent laboratories.

Potential value

The method converts date-palm fiber and Saudi bentonite into a functionalized nanoscale composite through specified extraction, clay activation, blending, and thermal steps.

Background

Growing water demand increases interest in sorbents that can remove organic and inorganic contaminants. Nanocellulose has modifiable surface groups, and bentonite provides mineral adsorption sites, making their combination a candidate composite. Date-palm biomass and Saudi clay also offer local raw-material streams. The publication documents chemical extraction, acid-treated clay preparation, composite formation, FT-IR, SEM, and a dye adsorption-capacity range. It does not quantify heavy-metal uptake, competitive selectivity, adsorption kinetics, regeneration, leaching, continuous-flow operation, or treated-water safety.

Technology overview

Date-palm leaflets undergo acid, alkaline, bleaching, washing, dialysis, and drying steps to yield 5–100 nm-wide nanocellulose. Khulays Mine bentonite is dried, ball-milled, treated with 20–40 wt.% hydrochloric acid at 70 °C, washed, and heated at a temperature of at least 500 °C to yield 5–100 nm particles. The two materials are blended, alkylamine-treated, heated, dried, and milled. The patent states a 1–10 mg/g room-temperature dye adsorption-capacity range.

Potential applications

Adsorptive removal of organic dyes from water.
Candidate heavy-metal capture from contaminated streams.
Natural-fiber and clay composite development.
Agricultural-residue valorization for environmental materials.

Evidence-supported advantages

The feedstocks combine renewable fiber with a mineral adsorbent.
Nanocellulose extraction and bentonite activation steps are specified.
Component dimensions and composite thickness are defined.
FT-IR and SEM characterization are described.
A dye adsorption-capacity range is stated at room temperature.

Development stage

Laboratory preparation, FT-IR and SEM characterization, and a patent-stated dye-capacity range are described; continuous-flow use and commercialization were not established.

Commercial opportunity

The process may interest bio-adsorbent and clay-material developers. Commercialization requires independent multisolute capacity and kinetic testing, heavy-metal data, regeneration cycles, alkylamine and acid residual analysis, particle and ion leaching, spent-material disposal, fixed-bed or continuous-flow trials, scale-up mass balance, processing cost, and treated-water compliance verification.

Patent classifications

WIPO IPC

B01J20/24Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/28Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F101/20Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge

CPC

B01J20/3021Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/28026Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/28011Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C08B15/00Polysaccharides; derivatives thereof
C08L1/02Compositions of macromolecular compounds
B01J20/28007Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/3085Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/3078Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/288Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/165Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/24Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/3071Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F2101/308Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F2101/20Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F1/286Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J2220/485Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J2220/4806Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F2305/08Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F1/281Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J2220/46Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus

Inventors

First inventorAbdulrahman G. ALHAMZANI
InventorSaad A. Aljlil

Keywords

natural fiber
nanocellulose
bentonite
date palm
nanocomposite
dye adsorption
heavy metals
water treatment

Patent document and drawings

The patent publication is mapped to this record. Patent drawings remain within that publication; no separately cleared public media package has been supplied.