Calcined flint clay (45.6 wt.% Al2O3) and solid waste coal gangue were used to prepare low-density ceramic proppant by solid state sintering method. The density and breakage ratio of the ceramic proppant were systematically investigated as a function of sintering temperature. The morphology and phase composition of the ceramic proppant were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the ceramic proppant is composed of rod-like mullite and granular cristobalite. Bulk density and apparent density of the proppant first rise and then slightly decrease with increasing the sintering temperature, while breakage ratios under 35 MPa and 52 MPa pressure gradually decrease and then increase. As the sintering temperature increases up to 1400 °C, the ceramic proppant shows denser microstructure. The proppant sintered at 1400 °C have the best performance with 1.27 g/cm3 of bulk density, 2.79 g/cm3 of apparent density, 3.27 % of breakage ratio under 35 MPa closed pressure and 8.36 % of breakage ratio under 52 MPa closed pressure, which conform to the requirement of low-density ceramic proppant. The addition of solid waste can greatly reduce the preparation cost of the ceramic proppant.
Corundum-mullite ceramic proppants have been successfully synthesized using raw materials of natural bauxite and solid waste coal gangue, CaCO 3 , as additive. The influences of calcium carbonate additive on phase composition, microstructure, and mechanical performances were systematically investigated. The results indicate that the addition of CaCO 3 promotes the formation of liquid phase at lower temperature during sintering process, which is beneficial to the densification of the samples and the reduction of sintering temperature. Moreover, the mullite grains become finer and finer with the content of CaCO 3 additive increasing, which improves the toughness and strength of the samples via a grain refinement strengthening mechanism. The ceramic proppants exhibit optimal performances with additive of 5 wt.% at 1350°C, and the breakage ratio under 52 MPa closed pressure is the lowest. Additionally, the sintering temperature is dropped by 150°C compared with the samples without adding calcium carbonate.
Low-cost ceramic proppants were successfully prepared from natural bauxite and solid waste coal gangue via CaCO 3 additive. 40 wt% of bauxite in raw materials was replaced by coal gangue, which significantly reduced the manufacturing costs. The apparent density, bulk density, acid solubility and breakage ratio of the proppant sintered at different temperatures were systematically investigated. The phase composition and morphological structure were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the amount of liquid phase affected the solid phase reaction velocity by changing sintering mechanism. When the sintering temperature was 1350 °C, the optimum size of the mullite crystal particles and the optimum amount of the liquid phase were observed and the samples exhibited the best performance.
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