4. Title: Process of manufacturing Liquid/Water absorbing Granules
5. Field of the invention.
This invention relates to a novel process of manufacturing bentonite granules with
increased absorption capacity.
6. State of the art in the field
Bentonite/fuller's earth belongs to montmorillionite family. Usually bentonite occurs as layers in the earth. There are two types of bentonites available in the earth one is called sodium bentonite and the other is called calcium bentonite. The chemical composition of Sodium bentonite or fuller's earth material in Andhra Pradesh particularly in Rangareddy District was analyzed and found to be a sodium bentonite with minor amounts of zeolite and calcium montmorillonite. This sodium bentonite has Na+ and Mg+ as the ionic characteristic features. It has excellent swelling features i.e. absorbtion. When excavated form the mother earth These bentonites are available as red lumps of size 40mm or even more size. Bentonite particles have a water or moisture content of between about 30% and about 50% by weight. Hence these Bentonites can be converted as an agricultural input useful for our farmers in the form of Granules which can retain moisture by absorbing when applied in the field . This water will be available to the plant when there is shortage of water and thus help Indian farmers who are dependent on rain for water as most of the land in India is rain fed. The granules can help the farmers to get good yields from their crops. The granules can also be used carrier's in application of plant nutrients, bio-fertilisers, bio-pesticides which can result in sustained release making them available to the plants for a longer duration. The granules can also be used in treatment of seed and can also be applied with other chemicals as a coating on the seed for attaining good germination rates. The present invention increases the water absorbing capacity of the bentonite upto 70% - 80% using the novel process. The increase in bentonite granules absorbent capacity is due to the reduction/removal of water content and keeping preferably between about 2 and about 5% by weight.

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7. Object of the invention :
It has already been proposed that the object of this invention is to come out with a novel process of manufacturing bentonite granules which have increased absorption capacity. The principal object of this invention is to propose a novel process of manufacture the granules which reduces the cost of the final product and is natural and eco-friendly.
8. Statement of invention:
Accordingly the invention provides a process of manufacturing bentonite granules which consists of using a crusher, hooper, conveyor belts, bucket elevator, screw conveyor, rotating furnace. There is also provided the method of manufacturing using the above elements where in the temperature of the rotating furnace is maintained around 300-350 ° Celsius to get optimum result. There is also provided a further method wherein the furnace oil is mixed with the granules before treating them in the furnace.
9. Description of Figures
The present invention is illustrated with accompanying figures i and ii, which are given to illustrate an embodiment of the present invention. This is not intended to be taken restrictively to imply any limitation on the scope of the present invention. The figures i represents the embodiment of the invention and figure ii is an improvement over i where all the resources are used in most efficient way.The corresponding numbers of the figure illustrate as below:
a) 1 illustrates bentonite black granules
b) 2 shows open type bucket elevator
c) 3 illustrates the furnace
d) 4 illustrates Fuel gas separator chamber with vent line
e) 5 shows open type bucket elevator

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f) 6 shows screw feeder for Furnace oil and rubber mixing
g) 7 illustrates raw material stock silo
h) 8 illustrates screw feeder for Furnace oil and rubber mixing
i) 9 shows open type bucket elevator
j) 10 illustrates Fuel gas separator chamber with vent line
k) 11 illustrates the rotatory furnace
1) 12 shows open type bucket elevator
m) 13 is rotary furnace gas burner
n) 14 is rotary furnace gas burner
o) 15 shows open type bucket elevator
10. Detailed description of the invention with reference to the drawings.
In the following detailed part of the present description, the invention will be explained more specifically with reference to the novel process and the way of manufacturing the granules with increased capacity of absorption. For the purpose of this Specification Bentonite/ fuller's earth refers to one or more forms of Sodium bentonite of montmorillionite family .According to t his invention the process of manufacturing the granules with increased absorption capacity involves the following steps:
CRUSHING OF LUMPS: The lumps of size 40mm or more size are collected
from the heap of raw natural bentonite with the help of loader and filled in the collection hooper where the lumps are stored. These lumps are passed through a small hole of the hooper and to the flat belt conveyor with the help of human intervention i.e. labour The conveyor runs with an electric motor. The lumps are allowed into the crusher where these are crushed to the size of 0-3mm granules with the help of electric motor which are passed over the vibrating screeners where fine granules of 3mm are collected in the pit and the powder is collected as wastage. The vibrating screener works with electric motor.
COLLECTION OF GRANULES: The collected fine screened granules are passed

from the pit with the help of long bucket conveyor to the 40metric tons capacity big round Hooper and stored. The Hooper is about 15 feet height from the ground.
HOOPER: This is a huge round storage tank of capacity of about 40 metric tons. The Fine granules from the pit are collected with the help of bucket conveyor to this Hooper where the screened granules can be stored.
FURNACE OIL: This is black oil with medium viscosity useful to mix with the fine granules to make the granules black. It is stored in a tank fitted near the Hooper where the fine granules are collected from the pit of the crusher. It is allowed to fall on the fine granules with the help of rubber pipe of 1 inch size. It is a continuous flow of oil on the granules.
SCREW CONVEYOM.: This is a conveyor with'screw type. In this conveyor the furnace oil is allowed with a fixed setup and mixed with the fine screened granules. Afterwards the oil mixed granules are passed through the bucket conveyor and collected in the storage tank from where the oil mixed granules are allowed in to the horizontal furnace.
HORIZONTAL ROTATING FURNACE: This a large horizontal rotating furnace of 25 feet length made up of with thick M.S Sheet into segments. Electric motor is used for rotating the furnace. Half of the furnace inside is lined with bricks which have the high tensile capacity. The oil mixed granules are allowed into the horizontal furnace from the storage tank. These granules are heated with the help of gassifier plant to a temperature of 300-350 degree Celsius resulting in evaporation of moisture from the granules which converts the fine oil granules to dry black granules.
GASSIFIER PLANT: This is a plant which runs with the help of coal. In this plant the coal is crushed to 20-40mm of size and passed with the help of big bucket type lift system upto 25 feet height where it is dumped into the storage tank. Here the

collected coal is fired and the gas that exits like methanol, ethylene and other ingredients is passed through the one inch pipe to the furnace system. This gas is allowed in to the furnace where it burns with the help of gas burner maintaining a correct temperature of 300- 350 degree Celsius with a continuous flow of granules. The granules are burnt and the moisture is removed thereby reducing there weight and at the same time increases the water holding capacity. The temperature can be detected with the temperature control board. The excess gas and other ingredients like tar are collected into the metal drums filled with water kept at regular intervals of connecting gas pipe.
COLLECTION PIT: The fired black granules are passed through the hole fitted at open end of the furnace where the gas is allowed to burn. These burned black granules are collected in the pit and passed to the big Hooper of 20 metric tons capacity. These granules are carried out to the Hooper with the help of bucket conveyor working with an electric motor.
COOLING SYSTEM: Finally the burned black granules are collected in the cooling system where these granule are cooled for sometime by electric fans or water circulation. They are treated with bio-chemicals and are bagged as per requirement in polythene bags.
The novel process increases the absorption capacity of the granules . The granules
not only lighter in weight but are characterized in absorbing liquid or water many times
their weight.
ABSORBENCY TEST
Absorbency was determined by determining the weight of the granules soaked in specified volume of water. 25 grams of granules were taken in a container and 250 ml water was poured in it. After 2-5 minutes the granules left in the water were removed and weighed. The weight of the granules after soaking in water was 200 grams. The weight of the specified volume of water is subtracted from the overall weight of the

granules to obtain the weight of water absorbed. Absorbency is expressed as the weight of water absorbed.
The bentonite granules manufactured using novel process are low costs/economical, have increased absorbency over a similarly sized natural bentonite granule, is natural and eco-friendly. These granules can be used as an agri input which are essential for the farmers to get good yields from their crops. These granules can be used to the seasonal crops like chillies, paddy, cotton, flowering plants etc. It has the water absorbing feature helps the plants have more water and live healthy.
The dimensions or size of the elements of the invention mentioned are to illustrate as examples and are not limiting factors of this disclosure.

Claims
I Claim,
1. A process of manufacturing granules with increased absorption capacity which
comprises crushing of Bentonite clay into granules using crusher, granules stored in a
hooper with the help of bucket conveyor, mixing furnace oil and granules with screw
conveyor, passing oil mixed granules into rotating furnace for burning, burnt granules
collected in hooper are cooled by passing in the cooling system.
2. The process as claimed in claim 1, comprises of bentonite granules with size ranging from 0-3mm.
3. The process as claimed in claim 1, where in the rotating furnace the temperature is maintained around 300-350 ° Celsius to get optimum result.
4. The process according to claim 1, wherein the gassifier plant uses the coal to generate methanol, ethylene to generate heat in the furnace.
5. The Process as claimed in claim 1, comprises mixing furnace oil in the granules to reduce moisture which also imparts black colour after treatment in furnace.
6. The process as caimed in claim 1, comprises hooper for storing granules which are of the sizes 20 and 40 metric tones.