Removal of Heavy Metals from Oil Fields Drilling Mud Wastewater Using Zeolite.

The aim of this research work was to study the potential capability of zeolites and kaolin to remove some, heavy, metals from drilling mud wastewater. Four samples were used, (three zeolites and one kaolin). Two natural zeolites(Stablite and Stellerite)  collected from Al Gadaref state (East Sudan), synthesizedzeolite from fly ash using sodium hydroxide under hydrothermal  conditions. Kaolin sample collected from Elmerkhiat mountain (North-East Omdurman Sudan). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to indicate crystal structure and ascertain zeolites and kaolin quality, the result shows that stablite (ZN1), have monoclinic, for stellerite (ZN2) similar to orthorhombic, synthesized zeolite (SZ) attributed to hexagonal and for natural kaolin (ka) triclinic. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), shows that major constituents of sample are SiO2 and Al2O3, in addition some other oxide, such as MgO, CaO, Fe2O3, TiO2 and Na2O were also detected. The main constituents were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive (EDX) analysis to be oxygen, silicon and aluminum, and the main function group of samples were determined using, Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) analysis to determine framework of sample (SiO4 and AlO4) from 681cm -1 to 698cm -1.