Study of lyophilic properties of natural clinoptilolite as a sorbent of oil and oil products

The object of research is natural clinoptilolite as a potential sorbent in the processes of water and soil purification from oil, petroleum products (A-95 gasoline, kerosene), industrial oil, benzene, toluene, hexane, water-gasoline emulsions, as well as water-organic condensate. It is known that this material has a high adsorption capacity for various organic media. Therefore, the lyophilic properties of different fractions of clinoptilolite in relation to the specified environments were investigated. The lyophilic properties of clinoptilolite were studied using the lying drop method to measure the marginal wetting angle of different zeolite fractions using the specified media. The data obtained determined the suitability of clinoptilolite for cleaning soils and waters from these liquids. The dependence of the wetting of clinoptilolite on the dispersion of clinoptilolite was established. All clinoptilolite fractions are characterized by high lyophilicity in all media except oil. The wettability of clinoptilolite with oil and the corresponding work of adhesion significantly depends on its dispersion. It was established that with an increase in the size of clinoptilolite particles from 0.1 to 2.5–3.0 mm, the work of adhesion increases from 13.5·10-3 to 51.2·10-3 J/m2. The influence of the surface morphology of clinoptilolite may cause this. An increase in temperature in the clinoptilolite-oil system contributes to the wetting of small fractions of zeolite with oil. The obtained experimental data show that natural clinoptilolite with a wide fractional composition can be used to purify natural and wastewater waters and soils from the indicated organic and water-organic environments. At the same time, only clinoptilolite fractions over 1 mm are suitable for oil sorption.