Patent ID: 7959895

Claim:
A process for producing spray-dried ATH particles comprising: a) wet-milling a slurry comprising from about 1 to about 80 wt. % ATH, based on the total weight of the slurry, thus producing a milled ATH slurry, and b) spray-drying said milled ATH slurry thus producing spray dried ATH; wherein said wet-milling is conducted in the presence of a liquid using spherical milling media having a diameter from about 0.1 mm to about 1.0 mm and a density from about 1.5 to about 8 g/cm 3 ; wherein said slurry is obtained from a process that comprises dissolving aluminum hydroxide in caustic soda to form a sodium aluminate liquor; filtering the sodium aluminate solution to remove impurities; cooling and diluting the sodium aluminate liquor; adding ATH seed particles to the sodium aluminate solution; allowing ATH particles to precipitate from the solution thus forming an ATH suspension containing from about 80 to about 160 g/l ATH, based on the suspension; filtering the ATH suspension thus forming a filter cake; and re-slurrying said filter cake to form said slurry comprising from about 1 to about 80 wt. % ATH, based on the total weight of the slurry, optionally washing said filter cake one or more times with water before it is re-slurried; and optionally c) reducing agglomerates present in said spray dried ATH.