The spherical oil agglomeration of barite suspensions in the presence of surfactant and cosurfactant

The spherical agglomeration of barite particles using oil in the presence of both surfactant and cosurfactant was studied. It was found that the mineral suspension needed a critical surfactant concentration to initiate oil agglomeration. The addition of long-chain aliphatic alcohols to the organic phase decreased the critical surfactant concentration. This phenomenon was ascribed to a screening effect of alcohol molecules in the adsorption layer of surfactant. When sodium chloride was added to the solution the spherical agglomeration disappeared even though the surfactant adsorption at the barite/solution interface increased. It was concluded that the disappearance of oil agglomeration was caused by a bilayer of the surfactant which was formed on the barite surface. In the barite—surfactant—alcohol—oil—brine system the agglomeration process is only realized with the long-chain alcohols. This behaviour can be explained by microemulsion formation at the mineral/solution interface.