Журнал нефтяной и экологической биотехнологии

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INVESTIGATION INTO SUDANESE SAND AS AN ATTRACTIVE RAW MATERIAL FOR SODIUM SILICATE PRODUCTION

Huzaifa Mohammed Adam Harameen*

Sudan is an African country that is located in northeast Africa it borders the countries of central African republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and the Red Sea. However, like the other African countries Sudan is rich with minerals. White quartz is one of these very abundant minerals in Sudan. Moreover, the purity of the Sudanese sand is extremely high and it can be used as raw material in many industries directly without treatment. One of these big industries is the production of sodium silicate. Sudanese quartz was examined as a raw material in sodium silicate production, in which different sample from the most well-known sand areas in Sudan (i.e. Bara, Elmatama, Nile beach, and concrete sand in Omdurman). Sieve analysis and chemical analysis were done for the sample to measure the particle size and the chemical purity of the sand respectively. The results showed that sand from Bara has the highest quality with 98.56% silica content and 100% fine particles. The quartz was mixed with standard soda ash and fused at different temperature, but sodium silicate was produced at a minimum temperature of 1100^oC and it failed to be produced at lower temperatures. The solubility in water of the final produced sodium silicate was measured, and it was found 29 gm/100 gm water at the standard condition (i.e. 1 at and 25^oC) and it increases with increasing the temperature since it was measured 116 gm/100 gm water. The results shows that Sudanese quartz from Bara is extremely attractive commercially as raw material for sodium silicate manufacturing due to its high quality and it is availabity.