Development of a method to reclaim off-grade emulsion semi-finished products of industrial explosives

The research is aimed at improving the methods to produce and apply in the mining industry energy-intensive emulsions based on concentrated solutions of inorganic salts (nitrates), which are second-class dispersions of the "Water-inOil" type. Every year when mining useful minerals, surface and underground operations consume about 1.15 million tonnes of industrial emulsion explosives (IEE), the largest share of which are the so-called caseless pouring types. When the emulsion matrix is produced, it is possible that off-grade emulsion, i.e. emulsion that does not meet the requirements of the relevant normative and technical documentation, may also be generated. Tentatively, the volume of such production waste may reach 57.5 thousand tonnes per year. Therefore, the issues of reclaiming the off-grade emulsion semi-finished products of industrial explosives into initial products for their reuse is not only of scientific and technical interest, but also of great economic and ecological importance. The objective of this study, performed by employees of AZOTTECH LLC in cooperation with the D. I. Mendeleev Russian University of Chemical Technology, is the development of a method and industrial technology to recycle emulsion production wastes for re-use of the reclaimed materials in production. A chemical method of controlled emulsion destruction was obtained based on the results of the performed research activities. The most effective demulsifier available in the Russian market was selected, by means of which it was possible to separate the emulsion into immiscible phases containing the initial components. Samples of the stable emulsion matrix that match the requirements of the normative documents in terms of quality, were obtained using the oil phase reclaimed materials and the oxidant solution.