Attapulgas clay

Boduszynski et al. (1980) described an elaborate new separation procedure for isolating and concentrating chemically defined compound types rather than solubility types. A residuum (675°C+) is first fractionated by chromatography with an ion and cation resin to isolate acids and bases, followed by coordination chromatography on ferric chloride Attapulgas clay to separate the remaining neutral Lewis base and hydrocarbon fraction. This latter component is further separated into saturate and aromatic hydrocarbons over silica gel. 

Methanolic ferric chloride solution was slurried with Attapulgas clay for 1 hr. and the excess solution removed by filtration. The ferric chloride coated Attapulgas Clay was washed several times with pentane, then Soxhlet extracted with pentane for 48 hrs., and then vacuum dried. 

A chromatographic column was wet-packed to half capacity with a pentane slurry of Amberlyst A-29 (oa. 100-125 ml) and a glass-wool plug positioned on top of the resin bed. The remaining volume of the column was wet-packed with a pentane slurry of ferric chloride coated on Attapulgas Clay (120-125 ml). The acid-and base-free material was quantitatively transferred to... 

Attapulgas Clay Company, table entitled, Effect of Mesh and Filter Rate on Efficiency of Fuller s Earth and Bauxite, Oil Gas J., Mar. 30, 1946, p. B-99 also Johnson, W. A., Decolorization of Petroleum Waxes by Adsorbent Percolation, Pet. Processing, September, 1947, p. 673. 

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