Synthesis of an emerging morpholine-typed Gemini surfactant and its application in reverse flotation carnallite ore for production of potash fertilizer at low temperature. (10th July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cheng, Chen; Huang, Zhiqiang; Zhang, Ruirui; Zhou, Jianrong; Liu, Zuwen; Zhong, Hong; Wang, Hongling; Kang, Zhongmin; He, Guichun; Yu, Xinyang; Ren, Zijie; Qiu, Tingsheng; Hu, Yajing; Fu, Weng
• Is Part Of: Journal of cleaner production. Volume 261(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-07-10
• Subjects: Morpholine-typed Gemini surfactant -- Sodium chloride -- Carnallite -- Reverse flotation -- Low-temperatures; Factory and trade waste -- Management -- Periodicals; Manufactures -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Déchets industriels -- Gestion -- Périodiques; Usines -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; 628.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121121
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-6526

Abstract

Abstract: Carnallite is a kind of high-quality source of raw material for the production of potash fertilizer (KCl) in industry. However, how to produce potash fertilizer sustainably at low temperature has always been a problem. In this work, we synthesized an emerging morpholine-typed Gemini surfactant, butanediyl-α, ω-bis (morpholino dodeculammonium bromide) (BM), which can be used to collect NaCl in reverse flotation carnallite ores in a low-temperature environment. We compared its ability to collect NaCl and carnallite with the monomeric surfactant 4-laurylmorpholine (LM) at low temperatures. The flotation test results indicated that BM has a stronger collecting ability for NaCl than that of conventional LM collector. At room temperature (25 °C), BM exhibits a forceful collecting function to NaCl and preeminent selectivity for carnallite. The recovery of NaCl ran up to 98.0% when the concentration of BM was 1 × 10 −5 mol/L. Under the same condition, the flotation recovery using LM was only 39.0%. The recoveries of carnallite of the two were not more than 3.5%. When the environment temperature descended, the effect of BM for NaCl exhibited a stronger stable trend. The recovery with BM as a collector raised notably from 68.0% to 96.5% with temperature ranging from 0 °C to 15 °C. However, in the same scope of dosage and temperature, the recovery with LM collector only raised from 3.5% to 31.5%. At 0 °C, LM lost the vast majority of its collector performance, while BM still showed high performance. Graphical abstract: The scheme of a proposal for the reverse flotation of carnallite using LM or BM as the collector. Image 1 Highlights: An emerging Gemini surfactant BM was used for production of potassium fertilizer. In the range of 0 °C–25 °C, BM has a stronger ability to collect NaCl than LM. BM exhibited surpassing selectivity for carnallite even at 0 °C. Gemini structure is promising for sustainable potassium fertilizer production.