Abstract: Salts and low molecular weight organic compounds are more efficiently separated from aqueous liquids by passing the liquid downwardly through a gel-type strong acid cation exchange resin, and eluting the resin. In a preferred embodiment, animal wastes and/or cheese whey are separated into usable components by removing insoluble organic material, then removing soluble proteins and/or enzymes by ion exchange with a macroporous weak base anion exchange resin, and then separating salts and nonionic organic compounds as above.

Abstract: The agglomeration or clumping of the resins in a resin bed comprising a mixture of anion and cation exchange resins is effectively reduced by treating the anion or cation resin with an aqueous dispersion of water-insoluble polymer particles having a particle size of from about 100 to about 800 A and bearing a moiety having opposite ionic character than the resin being treated. For example, the surface charge exhibited by a strong base anion exchange resin bearing pendant quaternary ammonium groups is reduced by contacting the resin with a colloidal aqueous dispersion of a water-insoluble polymer of a monovinylidene aromatic such as styrene and a small amount of a polyvinylidene aromatic such as divinylbenzene which polymer bears pendant sulfonate groups. The thus treated anion exchange resin can subsequently be mixed with a cation exchange resin to form a mixed resin bed having reduced clumping of resins without coincident decrease in efficiency.