Utilization of constituents of effluent from the manufacture of styrene bead polymers in the manufacture of fibrids

Claim 1

A process for the manufacture of discrete fibrids from a macromolecular waste material contained in the aqueous phase effluent obtained form the bead polymerization of a styrene monomeric reactant after removal of the bead polymer, said polymerization having been carried out in the presence of a vinylpyrrolidone polymer or a vinyl alcohol polymer as a protective colloid also present in said effluent, which process comprises: flocculating said macromolecular waste material in said aqueous phase effluent by carrying out one of the following steps, (a) when said effluent contains said vinylpyrrolidone polymer, by adding per 100 parts of effluent about 0.05 to 5.0 parts of a water-soluble or water-dispersible high molecular weight compound containing at least 10 percent by weight of polymerized acrylic acid units, or the alkali metal or ammonium salts thereof, and reducing the pH below 3 by adding an inorganic acid, or (b) when said effluent contains said vinylpyrrolidone polymer or said vinyl alcohol polymer, by heating the effluent in the presence of from about 0.02 to 5 percent by weight of sodium persulfate, potassium persulfate or ammonium persulfate; separating the resulting flocculated macromolecular waste material from the effluent as a solid product; dissolving or finely dispersing the waste material obtained as the solid product in an organic solvent selected from the group consisting of tetrahydrofuran and 1,4-dioxane; and introducing the resulting solution or dispersion into water as a fluid precipitation medium to precipitate the waste material under shearing forces applied thereto sufficiently to produce fibrids having a specific surface area of from 10 to 30 m 2 /g, a freeness of from 15 to 30° SR, a length of from 0.5 to 20 mm and a thickness of from 1 to 10 μ.