Patent ID: 7360657

Claim:
A method of continuously separating a slurry comprising magnetic particles into a clarified stream and a thickened stream consisting essentially of the steps of: a) providing a substantially vertical magnetic separator comprising a container having a top portion and a bottom portion, generating at least one gradient magnetic field within said container and disposed in a substantially vertical orientation, providing an overflow outlet on the top portion of said container, providing an underflow outlet on the bottom portion of said container, and providing at least one slurry inlet on said container disposed to introduce a flow of slurry feed between said overflow outlet and said underflow outlet; b) introducing a continuous flow of feed slurry, said feed slurry comprising Fischer-Tropsch liquid containing waxes and magnetic catalyst particles into said at least one slurry inlet, wherein said feed slurry is characterized by a concentration of magnetic particles therein; c) withdrawing a continuous flow of overflow slurry comprising Fischer-Tropsch liquid containing waxes and magnetic catalyst particles from said overflow outlet, wherein said overflow slurry is characterized by a concentration of magnetic catalyst particles therein which is less than the concentration of magnetic catalyst particles in the feed slurry; and d) withdrawing a continuous flow of underflow slurry comprising Fischer-Tropsch liquid containing waxes and magnetic catalyst particles from said underflow outlet, wherein said underflow slurry is characterized by a concentration of magnetic catalyst particles therein which is greater than the concentration of magnetic catalyst particles in the feed slurry.