Hydrogen enriched water swellable clay having reduced acid demand and stable at low pH

Abstract

A water swellable clay i.e. bentonite, hectorite, saponite or mixtures thereof, is slurried in water and contacted with a hydrogen ion exchange resin to replace a portion of the exchangeable sodium and other exchangeable cations with hydrogen, resulting in a hydrogen enriched, water swellable clay. It has been found that even the very low grade water swellable clays can be treated with the hydrogen ion exchange resin to provide a hydrogen enriched clay having reduced acid demand. The resulting clays have reduced acid demand for mixture in forming Magnesium Aluminum Silicate meeting specifications. Further, the resulting hydrogen enriched clay will not substantially flocculate or settle out of suspension in suspensions having a pH below about 6.0 and generally are useful in a suspension having a pH of about 2.0 to about 5.0 or about 2.0 to about 5.5 so that the modified clay can be used effectively as a suspending agent and as a viscosity modifying agent in water containing suspensions having a low pH.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.