A study on spherical oil agglomeration of barite suspensions

Abstract

In this study, the recovery of barite particles was investigated by using oil agglomeration. For this purpose, effects of operating parameters were investigated and also, zeta potential measurements and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR) analyses have been carried out. In the experiments, effects of operating parameters such as; pH, stirring speed, amount of Na-Oleate as a collector, and kerosene as a bridging liquid, solid concentration, suspension conditioning time, collector stirring time and agglomeration time were investigated to obtain optimum conditions. Zeta potential measurements were carried out depending on pH values and amount of Na-Oleate. FTIR analyses were investigated to determine the adsorption type of Na-Oleate on the barite surface. By the evaluation of the experimental results, optimum oil agglomeration conditions of barite were determined as follows; pH: 10, stirring speed: 1500 rpm, amount of kerosene: 80 l/t, amount of Na-Oleate: 3 kg/t, solid concentration: 5 wt.%, suspension conditioning time: 2 min, collector stirring time: 1 min and agglomeration time: 2 min. In the optimum conditions, barite was concentrated with recovery of 98.07 wt.%.