Dispersants for Mineral Slurries & Processing | Arkema Specialty Surfactants

Dispersants help control the rheological properties and flow behavior of mineral slurries by keeping fine mineral particles uniformly dispersed. This can help maintain a stable, lower-viscosity slurry at higher solids concentrations, improving handling, pumping, grinding, and transportation throughout mineral processing operations.

Arkema develops customized dispersants for specific ores and process conditions to improve slurry stability, flow, and overall handling performance.

Improve Slurry Flow and Stability

At high solids concentrations, mineral particles can agglomerate, increasing slurry viscosity and making the material more difficult and energy-intensive to move. Dispersants help separate and stabilize these particles, improving slurry mobility while maintaining the desired solids concentration.

Optimizing slurry dispersion can help:

Reduce slurry viscosity
Improve pumping efficiency
Support higher-solids slurry handling
Reduce pumping energy requirements
Reduce dilution and water requirements
Improve grinding and processing efficiency
Support efficient mineral transportation

Reduce Settling and Cementation During Transportation

Mineral slurries can settle, compact, or cement during pipeline or transportation downtime, making restart more difficult. Dispersants help maintain particle separation and improve the ability of settled material to redisperse when operations resume.

Dispersants can also support minerals transported in drums or other containers where maintaining slurry stability during extended transportation and storage is important.

Customized Dispersant Solutions

Dispersant performance depends on the mineralogy, particle characteristics, solids concentration, water chemistry, transportation method, and operating conditions.

Arkema's technical experts work with producers to select and test customized dispersant solutions designed for their specific ore and process. Laboratory evaluation and plant testing can help optimize product selection, dosage, and application.

Benefits

Arkema dispersants can help provide:

Improved slurry flow and stability
Reduced slurry viscosity
Increased process throughput
Improved pumping efficiency
Reduced pumping energy
Reduced water requirements
Improved slurry transportation
Reduced settling and cementation challenges
Improved restart following process downtime

Partner with Arkema

Efficient slurry handling requires the appropriate balance of solids concentration, viscosity, particle dispersion, and operating conditions.

Work with Arkema to develop a customized dispersant solution designed to improve slurry stability, pumping efficiency, and mineral transportation.

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