Main Uses and Functions of Drilling Mud Bentonite

Primary Uses and Functions of Drilling Mud Bentonite

1. Casting Industry

Regular casting and investment casting both require bentonite as a sand mold binder to facilitate better molding of castings. Drilling mud bentonite boasts numerous advantages, such as excellent adhesion, good permeability, physical and chemical stability, fewer sand holes, low scrap rates, and high surface quality of castings. Practice has proven that with the rapid development of the new century, bentonite remains an ideal molding material essential for various castings, with irreplaceable advantages.

Drilling mud

Drilling mud bentonite is an ideal material for preparing low-solid drilling muds, boasting excellent lubricity, suspending ability, cohesive properties, and water-swelling characteristics. When bentonite and water are dissolved in a specific ratio, a high-viscosity suspending gel solution of bentonite forms, which exhibits good slurry-forming, cohesive, lubricating, suspending, and thixotropic properties. The primary function of bentonite in drilling mud is to cool the drill bit, lubricate the drill string, return cuttings, protect the wellbore, and balance formation pressure. When drilling encounters complex geological formations, accidents like wellbore collapse, falling blocks, and drill埋ment are more likely to occur. In such cases, it is essential to use sodium drilling mud bentonite for mud wall protection to prevent various cave-in and drill埋ment incidents, reduce losses, and enhance drilling efficiency.

3. Metallurgical Pellets

A small amount of bentonite is used in the smelting of metallurgical pellets, primarily to enhance the agglomeration and adherence of iron concentrate. The iron concentrate serves as a binder for iron ore pellets, facilitating the subsequent pelletizing, heating, sintering, and smelting processes. The addition rate is between 1% to 2% of the iron concentrate powder. Benefits: Bentonite can significantly boost the production capacity of blast furnace metallurgical pellets and is highly favored by steel mills and enterprises.

4. Active Clay

Activated clay is a chemical product obtained by activating white bentonite with sulfuric acid. Its high adsorption capacity is a distinct feature of activated clay, similar to activated carbon, with the advantage of being less expensive than activated carbon. Active white clay is widely used in the purification of animal and vegetable oils, as well as various minerals, the regeneration of ethanol in waste oil, decolorization and purification of benzene, suspension agents for pesticides, purification and clarification of fruit juices, and as a carrier for chemical catalysts.

Granular white clay made from activated white clay consists of irregular small particles. These small particles of activated white clay have a larger specific surface area, greater particle strength, excellent adsorption performance, and good physical and chemical stability. Therefore, they can be better applied in various industries, such as aromatics purification in the petrochemical industry, wastewater treatment, extraction of aviation kerosene, and refining of lubricating oils, base oils, diesel, and more.