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Our Earth, its minerals and ore bodies
Published in Odwyn Jones, Mehrooz Aspandiar, Allison Dugdale, Neal Leggo, Ian Glacken, Bryan Smith, The Business of Mining, 2019
Odwyn Jones, Mehrooz Aspandiar, Allison Dugdale, Neal Leggo, Ian Glacken, Bryan Smith
A mineral by definition is a naturally occurring homogeneous solid, inorganically formed, with a definite chemical composition and an ordered atomic arrangement (Mason and Berry, 1968). Some naturally occurring minerals do not quite meet the requirements in terms of the full definition because they lack definite composition, a crystalline structure or both e.g. opal. Mineral-like materials are called mineraloid.
Minerals
Published in Dexter Perkins, Kevin R. Henke, Adam C. Simon, Lance D. Yarbrough, Earth Materials, 2019
Dexter Perkins, Kevin R. Henke, Adam C. Simon, Lance D. Yarbrough
Some mineral-like substances, termed mineraloids, are partially or completely amorphous, which means they have a random atomic structure and thus are not crystalline. Some examples are shown in Figure 3.13. For example, natural volcanic glass, called obsidian (top photo), forms so quickly that atoms cannot arrange themselves in a regular, repetitive atomic structure. The process produces a glass that, unlike a mineral, is noncrystalline. So, obsidian is considered a mineraloid.
Study the characteristics of porcellanite rocks and applied as a sorbent for removing crude oil
Published in Applied Earth Science, 2023
Mayssaa Ali AL-Bidry, Jenan Al-Najar, Asawer Al-Wassity
Sorbents can be categorized into natural and synthetic materials. Synthetic sorbents despite their effectiveness, it has disadvantages of complexity in the synthetic procedure and high cost (Sun et al. 2002; Bandura et al. 2017). The natural sorbents classified into organic and inorganic materials. The organic materials, like agricultural products, peat moss, wood products, or polymer such as chitosan. Chitosan can be used efficiently for removal of organic and inorganic pollutants such as oil and dyes, and heavy metals (Mashabi et al. 2022; Elwakeel et al. 2012; Elwakeel 2010; Ahmad et al. 2005). The inorganic sorbents like mineral absorbents such as silica, zeolite, clays, graphite, and activated carbon are the most extensively used due to their low cost (Inagaki et al. 2001; Carmody et al. 2007; Arbatan et al. 2011; Franus et al. 2014; Muir and Bajda 2016; Akpomie et al. 2019). Despite the extensive effective use of mineral absorbents, there are few studies on the use of silica in oil removal from water. The silica adsorbents group includes siliceous rocks and diatomaceous rocks. In terms of their mineral composition, mineraloids dominate this group opal (cristobalite and tridymite), quartz, and chalcedony (Bandura et al. 2017). Porcellanite rocks are porous siliceous sedimentary rocks composed mainly of the mineral opal and quartz. It is a natural adsorb that, as a result of its enormous porosity and surface area, has a very high adsorption capacity (Abu-Hawwas et al. 2018). Few recent studies used porcellanite rock as a sorbent material. Abu-Hawwas et al. (2018), studied Jordanian porcellanite rock as an alternative natural adsorbent, and low-cost adsorbent material for the removal of toxic inorganic materials from water. The results reveal that Pb ions exhibit a strong affinity for adsorbing via porcellanite, where the maximum removal percentage reaches 95–98%. Abood and Jassim (2018), used Iraqi porcellanite to remove methylene blue in the batch method. The results showed that propellant has a very high adsorption capacity of 99.98% and the percentage of removal increases with increasing pH and temperature. Pre-treatment of rocks enhances pore volume, surface area, and the amount of surface acid and base sites. In this way, minerals of porcellanite rock can become more organophilic and hydrophobic, which also enhances the adsorption capacity for non-ionic organic substances. Porcellanite rocks are pre-treated by impregnating the mineral’s surface with organic chemicals and heating it (Bandura et al. 2017). Porcellanite has been thermally treated in numerous studies, but there has only been a little amount of research done on its chemical treatment with HCl and NaOH, particularly by the base. Porcellanite has been thermally treated in numerous studies, but there has only been a little amount of research done on its chemical treatment with HCl and NaOH, particularly by the base. This study, which is brand-new, aims to examine the effectiveness of naturally occurring and chemically altered porcellanite to remove crude oil from water. However, the real applications of porcellanite rocks have been rather restricted, despite the extensive effort and the encouraging results for the oil spill clean-up process from water with some minerals.