The Effect of Ultrasound Treatment on Oil Agglomeration of Barite

Abstract

In this study, the effect of ultrasonic treatment on oil agglomeration of barite ore was investigated. The ultrasound process not only improved the agglomeration efficiency of barite when applied as a pretreatment in the process of oil agglomeration of barite, but also reduced the consumption of oleate and kerosene. On the other hand, the use of only the ultrasonic process, in other words, its use at the agglomeration stage, negatively affected the agglomeration recovery. The power of ultrasound and the time of treatment were also important parameters affecting the agglomeration process of barite, and more successful agglomeration was achieved with short-term ultrasound pretreatment at a low power value (60 W, 120 sec). In addition, depending on the oleate concentration, the ultrasound process further increased the zeta potential of the barite, and this increase showed that the oleate adsorption on the barite surface increased. Moreover, higher contact angle values were obtained with ultrasound than the experiments without ultrasound at the same conditions. However, increasing the power of ultrasound and the time of treatment not only reduced the agglomeration efficiency, but also reduced the contact angle values of the barite. As a result, while the agglomeration recovery was 88.63% without ultrasound, it increased to 99.45% with ultrasonic pretreatment at the same conditions of 40 L/ton kerosene and 2 kg/ton oleate.