Investigation of relationship between critical surface tension of wetting and oil agglomeration recovery of barite

Abstract

In this study, relationship between the critical surface tension of wetting of barite and agglomeration recovery and also zeta potential depending on pH and amount of collector (Na-oleate) was investigated. For this purpose, effects of pH and the amount of collector on the agglomeration recovery were investigated and also, zeta potential measurements and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) analyses have been carried out to determine the adsorption type of Na-oleate on barite surface. At pH 7, the maximum agglomeration recovery was obtained, the critical surface tension of wetting of celestite is very close to the surface tension of kerosene of which is 25.95 mN/m. And also, at the optimum amount of Na-oleate of 3 kg/t, the critical surface tension of wetting of celestite is approximately equal to the surface tension of kerosene. In this paper, the decisive rules could not put down in declare of agglomeration success with the critical surface tension of wetting value as in the flotation, because there are different liquids as water and oil (bridging liquid) in the agglomeration system.