Patent ID: 8183337

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing a quantity of poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol); dissolving the polymer in a sufficient quantity of an alcohol or an alcohol/water mixture at an elevated temperature so as to achieve substantially complete dissolution; cooling the dissolved polymer solution until a gel forms; combining the gel with a fluid while agitating the admixture until polymer particles form, wherein the fluid is the same as or different than the alcohol or alcohol/water used initially to dissolve the polymer and is at about the same temperature as the cooled dissolved polymer solution; isolating the polymer particles; and drying the isolated polymer particles, wherein, the method is optionally repeated one or more additional times using the polymer particles, as isolated or dried in the preceding application of the method, as the quantity of poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol), and the same or a different alcohol or alcohol/water mixture and the same or a different fluid for each repetition.