Application fields of bentonite

date icon October.10,2024

Bentonite is the most developed and utilized mineral among non-metallic minerals. It has been widely used in oil mining, directional crossing, steel casting, metallurgical pellets, chemical coatings, compound fertilizers, sizing, rubber, plastics, papermaking, water purification, and absorption. Tide agents, pesticides and other fields.

Drilling project

At present, bentonite is used as a drilling mud material, accounting for about 18% of the entire bentonite industry. In actual application, the thixotropy of bentonite causes equipment to be easily clogged and increases maintenance and management troubles.

wastewater treatment

Powdered bentonite has become a high-quality mineral material for wastewater treatment due to its large specific surface area, excellent adsorption performance and ion exchange performance. Theoretically, powdered bentonite should have better adsorption effect, but due to its water-absorbing swelling and cohesiveness, the silt will stick and agglomerate, significantly reducing the adsorption effect and producing secondary sludge.

In actual applications, powdered bentonite is made into a certain shape to facilitate recycling and utilization: it is prepared into pellets with the help of the cross-linking effect of sodium alginate and calcium chloride solution; it is prepared into strips with the help of extrusion equipment; it is made into strips with the help of 3D Printing technology uses bentonite as the printing material to make honeycomb-type adsorption bricks, etc. The strength of the formed soil should also be ensured for transportation and application.

Metallurgical Engineering

Bentonite has good dispersion, suspension and cohesiveness, and is widely used in the production of pellets, the raw material for blast furnace ironmaking. Bentonite used as a pellet binder can optimize the performance of balling and the bonding force between green ball particles. , accelerates the formation and growth of pellets and stores the moisture inside the pellets, which can significantly improve the drop strength, compressive strength, burst temperature and dry ball compressive strength of green balls, but it also introduces a large amount of Si and Al, etc. Impurities reduce the grade of pellets. Therefore, using high-quality and efficient bentonite in metallurgical engineering and reducing the amount of bentonite is the key to producing high-quality pellets.

Building materials

Bentonite can absorb water many times its own weight, so that its volume expands to several times or even dozens of times its original volume. After absorbing water to a certain extent, bentonite is equivalent to a colloid and has the property of repelling water. Taking advantage of this characteristic , bentonite can be used in waterproofing materials. Typical examples are bentonite waterproofing blankets, lightweight wall materials, impregnated coatings, and landfill barrier materials.