Clay and Drilling Muds

Thermotech Systems Corporation (Thermotech) has patented a thermal desorption, two-stage tandem soil remediation unit (TDU) that treats and desorbs light and heavy hydrocarbons from contaminated soils, clays, and drilling muds. Thermotech s TDU does not incinerate soil, but rather cleans and recycles it. The technology has been commercially available since 1991. 

Emulsions stabilized by fine particles can be broken up if the wettability of the particles is changed by adding oil- or water-soluble demulsifiers. Iron sulphides, clays, and drilling muds can be made water wet, causing them to leave the interface and be diffused into the water droplets or they can be made oil-wet so that they can be dispersed in the oil. Paraffins and asphaltenes can be dissolved by the demulsifier to make their films less viscous, or crystallization and precipitation can be prevented [1, 3,16-18],... 

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