Bentonite: a swelling market

• Autores: Emma Hughes
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 543, 2012
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Calcium bentonite is a useful adsorbent of ions in solution, as well as fats and oils. The mineral is the main active ingredient of fuller's earth, one of the earliest industrial cleaning agents. Calcium bentonite can be converted to sodium bentonite by a process known as ion exchange.

    The fracking process utilises, in most cases, a mixture of water, silica sand (or other proppant variations) and a drilling fluid, such as bentonite. Bentonite is the second most-commonly used industrial mineral in drilling fluids, called muds, after barytes. Drilling fluids can be divided into three primary types: water-based, oil-based and synthetic. Bentonite is among the most popular of the water-based fluids, and accounts for around 70-80% of the drilling grade bentonite produced, and around 20% of overall bentonite demand.

    "It is not foreseen [that there is] any significant substitution [for bentonite] from other materials; on the contrary, in the future bentonite might be able to substitute other materials, which have less flexibility than that of bentonite," S&B Group, which dedicates 50% of its business to bentonite, told IM.