The present work aimed at study the removal of amines applied in the iron ore industry, through their adsorption on zeolites. The experiments were carried out at bench scale as well as room temperatures applying two different type of amine: the monoamine Flotigan EDA-3B and the diamine F2835-2L. The effects of pH and amine concentration in solution over the adsorption were assessed. The amine concentration in the aqueous solution was determined at 409nm in a UV-visible spectrofotometer. The zeolite loadings were assessed by mass balance. Overall extractions were between 95 and 98%. The electroforetic mobility showed surface charge reversal of both materials loaded with amine, suggesting that the loading took place initially through capillary condensation produced by electrostatic interactions followed by multilayer adsorption.
Amine; zeolite; flotation; iron ore