Initial processing of Athabasca oil sands obtained from the water-based extraction process yields stable water-in-bitumen emulsions.When the bitumen is diluted with naphtha to reduce its viscosity and density, partial separation can be obtained with a suitable demulsifier. However, a “rag layer” forms between the clean oil and free water layers. The partially oil-wet kaolinite in clay solids ca...

A pilot-scale study was initiated to examine the behavior of viruses pulse injected into a distribution system. The influence of a free-chlorine residual and that of virus preadsorption to clay particles was evaluated by tracing the viruses both in the water flow and after elution from the biofilm. These experiments demonstrated, first, that virus preadsorption on 40 mg of Na-montmorillonite pe...

Adequate clay minerals considerably affect the macroscopic mechanical behavior of water even at concentrations of a few percent. Thus when 2 wt. % laponite clay mineral nanoparticles are added to water, the resulting colloidal suspension after some time takes on the semisolid characteristics of a jellylike material at room temperature. Cold neutron time-of-flight spectroscopy data are in agreem...

This work identifies the main phenomena that control the peptisation and transport of clay particles in a sand core. Clay can be dispersed into small particles in an aqueous solution of low ionic strength. This property is used to generate clay particles with NaCl concentration varying from 0.5 M to 0.015 M. For this purpose, a chromatographic column is initially packed with a 5 % clay-sand mix...

The water percolation loss beyond root zone in the soil is one of the important parameters to determine water requirement of rice plant. If the amount of water percolation rate into the soil is estimated more carefully, determination of water requirement will be evaluated better and designing for system of irrigation, drainage and related establishments will be more easily done. The purpose of ...

Enteric pathogens from biofertilizer can accumulate in the soil, subsequently contaminating water and crops. We evaluated the survival, percolation and leaching of model enteric pathogens in clay and sandy soils after biofertilization with swine digestate: PhiX-174, mengovirus (vMC0), Salmonella enterica Typhimurium and Escherichia coli O157:H7 were used as biomarkers. The survival of vMC0 and ...

Fired clay minerals rehydroxylate after firing, a phenomenon that causes the long-term mass gain and expansion seen in archaeological ceramics. During rehydroxylation, fired clay minerals react with H2O to form structural hydroxyl (OH). Recent models propose that rehydroxylation is described by a quartic root (t1/4) time dependence, which has led to a dating method based on the process (RHX, re...

This study aimed to develop an oral delivery system using clay-based organic-inorganic hybrid materials to improve the bioavailability of the drug, flurbiprofen, which is poorly soluble in water. 3-aminopropyl functionalized magnesium phyllosilicate (AMP clay) was synthesized by a one-pot direct sol-gel method, and then flurbiprofen (FB) was incorporated into AMP clay (FB-AMP) at different drug...

HGmod is a computer program that builds on stochastic realizations of porosity fields to derive electrical conductivity, dielectric permittivity and hydraulic permeability models. The presence of clay, the influence of salinity as well as temperature of the fluid of imbibition are taken into account in the underlying formulations. The saturated and unsaturated zones are also considered through ...

Clay minerals may be si<j'nifieant indieatoi's of earth processes. They form throufrh a range which involves at one extreme the action of compressed water vapor at a temperature of several hundred degrees centigrade, and at the other extreme, the action of atmospheric agencies at an ordinary temperature. Not recognized as original products of magmatic crystallization, clay minerals are prima fa...