Development of Magnetic Separation of Water-Soluble Materials Using Superconducting Magnet

In traditional usage of magnetic separation, it had been applied only to the separation of ferromagnetic materials such as iron related compounds from kaoline minerals. If paramagnetic or diamagnetic materials are to be efficiently and rapidly separated at the level of practical use, applicable fields of magnetic separation is widely enlarged. To accomplish this goal, developments of appropriate magnetic seeding process and design of the separation system consisting of superconducting magnets should be required. Recently, we succeeded in developing a high gradient magnetic separation system for purification of wastewater from paper factory. Here we extended the previous study and consider efficient recovery of the soluble molecules and ions using a magnetic absorbents and bulk superconducting magnet in order to enlarge the application field. In the present paper, the threshold of the required magnetic field gradient and magnetic force were discussed for designing the bulk superconducting magnet. It has also reported that the originally prepared magnetic absorbents can effectively recover the organic dyes and phosphate ions, and that separation process using superconducting magnet shows the feasibility for the practical application.