• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.84-91
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• 2020

The efficiency of the synthetic magnesium silicate used in basic polyols and edible oil purification is evaluated by its purification ability and filtration rate and is affected by the particle size and surface area of magnesium silicate. In this study, it was investigated the change on the particle size of magnesium silicate was influenced by the reaction temperature, injection rate, injection order (Si, Mg) and Mg/Si reaction mole ratio. The synthesized magnesium silicate was compared and analyzed for the synthesis, grinding, and refining processes. In the synthesis process, the reaction temperature and feed rate did not affect the average particle size change of magnesium silicate, while the reaction molar ratio of Mg / Si and the order of injection acted as main factors for the change of average particle size. The average particle size of magnesium silicate increased by 8.7 ㎛ from 54.4 ㎛ to 63.1 ㎛ at Mg injection when Mg molar ratio increased from 0.125 to 0.500, and increased by about 4.8 ㎛ from 47.3 ㎛ to 52.1 ㎛ at Si injection. The average particle size according to the order of injection was 59.1 ㎛ for Mg injection and 48.4 ㎛ for Si injection and the difference was shown 10.7 ㎛, therefore the filtration rate was about 2 times faster under the condition of Mg injection. That is, as the particle size increases, the filtration time is shortened and washing filtration rate can be increased to improve the productivity of magnesium silicate. The cake form of separated magnesium silicate after filtration becomes a solid through drying process and is used as powdery adsorbent through the grinding process. As the physical strength of the dried magnesium silicate increased, the average particle size of the powder increased and it was confirmed that this strength was affected by the reaction molar ratio. As the reaction molar ratio of Mg / Si increased, the physical strength of magnesium silicate decreased and the average particle size after grinding decreased by about 40% compared to the average particle size after synthesis. This reduction of strength resulted in an improvement of the refining ability due to the decrease of the average particle size and the increase of the amount of fine particle after the pulverization, but it resulted in the decrease of the purification filtration rate. While the molar ratio of Mg/Si was increased from 0.125 to 0.5 at Mg injection, the refining ability increased about 1.3 times, but the purification filtration rate decreased about 1.5 times. Therefore, in order to improve the productivity of magnesium silicate, the reaction molar ratio of Mg / Si should be increased, but in order to increase the purification filtration rate of the polyol, the reaction molar ratio should be decreased. In the synthesis parameters of magnesium silicate, the order of injection and the reaction molar ratio of Mg / Si are important factors affecting the changes in average particle size after synthesis and the changes of particle size after grinding due to the changes of compressive strength, therefore the synthetic parameter is an important thing that determines productivity and refining capacity.