Abstract: This invention relates to defoamed compositions and processes for inhibiting foaming in a liquid system containing water. Maleic ester copolymers in admixture with a mineral oil are particularly useful in pulp and paper manufacturing applications. The defoamers of the invention are compositions comprising mineral oil and a polymer which is an alkyl ester of the reaction product of a maleic compound and a monoethylenically unsaturated monomer copolymerizable therewith.

Abstract: A free-radical prepolymer, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,417 as being a dispersant, when added at 10 to 500 parts per million to a reaction mixture in which raw tall oil soap is acidulated to obtain tall oil, is found to act as a separating agent and increase the quantity of tall oil recovered.

Abstract: There is practiced a four-step procedure, according to which the acrylamide or the like and, if desired, other ingredients, is first polymerized in a water-in-oil emulsion where the oil phase consists of a hydrocarbon solvent in the presence of an appropriate quantity of suitable surfactant so as to produce particles of a desired size, then water is azeotropically removed, and then a suitable glycol or glycol ether is added, following which the hydrocarbon solvent used in the polymerization reaction is removed. This makes it possible to obtain a composition of matter which contains at least 10 weight percent of active flocculant ingredient, and more usually about 20 percent, suspended in a medium which is entirely water-soluble. Such flocculant compositions dissolve readily in water, yet they can be obtained, according to the method of the invention, in a manner considerably less expensive than any process which necessitates the grinding of a solid flocculant material into finely divided form.