Document omk76EM1V6oQ381ZyQKY5OrdE

FILE NAME: Montello (MNT) DATE: 1972 July 24 DOC#: MNT013 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Internal Memo & Report - Zero Dust for Drilling Muds o a t&-2 ^ iM Tc n M A L c o n r ^ s p o K D ^ c n PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT KiiniMG a?j peta ls division P 0 BOX 573. NIAGARA FALLS. NFV,' YORK 1-130? To<iW ewaso Lambs Mr. J . L. Myers Niagara F a lls , New York C e p rfs. Messrs. R. E. Byrne, J r . F. H. Larrison 0. W. Rawlings H. Wyatt '*/*3 F ile / Je. Br July 24, 1972 Ortyticftng Cepl. Research onci Development Department Antwviitg teller M- Zero Dust Asbestos fo r D rillin g Muds CS Dear John: ' As noted in my-ROC o f 6/21/72 re M ontello, a "d u stless" asbestos w ill be im portant or possibly absolutely e sse n tia l to maintain a p o sitio n in the d r illin g mud market. An obvious way to solve th is problem is to provide p e lle ts with s u f f ic ie n t m oisture to look damp but not be so wet th a t they s tic k to g eth e r in the bag or freeze in to a s o lid lump. This l e t te r presents the resu lts of a prelim inary look a t the technical fe a s ib ility of p ellets o f th is type-from consideration of the end use. I t is . fu lly re a liz e d th a t th ere are real and su b s ta n tia l problems in th e manufacture of such p e lle ts and cap ital expenditures fo r p la n t equipment might be needed. , The data presented herein are intended to provide p a rt of the b a s ic inform ation needed to make a ra tio n a l decision re la tiv e to th is and possibly o th er aqueous end use asbestos markets. The SVB p e lle ts to be described were made by mixing equal weights of SVB and w ater and extruding the mix through a 5/32 die attached to a hand operated meat g rin d er. (SVB used was Q.C. sample o f October 1971 product.} The p e lle ts were then dried a t 100"C fo r various times to give a range of water contents between 13 and 37% (see Table I ) . The samples were then placed in a fre e z e r a t -5C fo r 16 hours. The r e s u lts o f th is t e s t are a lso lis te d in Table I. The data in d ic a te th a t p e lle ts in the range of 15-20% may have s a tis fa c to r y physical p ro p e rtie s. They look moist but do not appear to be excessively s o ft or stic k y . They may s tif f e n a l i t t l e on freezin g but s t i l l break e a s ily and do not form a mass. There i s no way to t e l l from these small sam ples, however, whether these p e lle ts w ill congeal in to a s o lid mass when stacked and shipped. The o th er key property needed fo r SVB i s the a b ility to "open" under reasonable sh e a r. We normally use the procedure developed fo r th e AEC SVB purchases' to check SVB. This is a p a rtic u la rly s e n s itiv e t e s t intended to separate SVB from a ll other asbestos. A very sh o rt (4 minute) shearing period in a HuH i mixer is used to mix the mbd (50 SVB - 50% b e n to n ite ). More ty p ical "mud" lab o rato ry procedures c a ll for 20 minutes in the H ultim ixer o r 5 minutes I Mr. J . L. Myers 2 July 24, 1972 a t high speed in a Hamilton Beach mixer. A v a rie ty of th ese procedures have been used to assess th e way in which th e p e lle ts with ZQ% m oisture open. R esults are shown in Table I I . Referring to Table I I , the f i r s t sample,. 1857-53-1, shows th a t under th e Very low sh ear conditions in the standard AEC t e s t th e r e la tiv e ly heavy wet p e ll e ts sank to the bottom o f the Multimixer cup and did n ot open a t a l l . When th e same ben to n ite-asb esto s mix was subjected to very high sh ear in the Waring Blender (Test 1857-63-2), outstanding p ro p ertie s were a tta in e d . The p e lle ts when completely dry also opened q u ite well {see 1857-63-3). The l a s t four runs in Table II were made to give a b e tte r d e fin itio n o f th e opening requirem ents. T est 1857-63-4 shows th a t four minutes a t high speed in the Hamilton Beach gave e x c elle n t p ro p e rtie s . This demonstrates th a t th e p e lle ts per se are not hard to open when th e re is s u f f ic ie n t a g ita tio n to c arry them in to the shearing zone. Some mud la b o ra to rie s consider th is shear lev el as a good approximation of what occurs in a w e ll. For runs 1857-65-1 and 1857-65-2 the wet p e lle ts were "opened" in a Waring Blender before mixing the mud. Results are b e tte r but th e re was a pronounced tendency f o r th e dry bentonite to coat the wet asbestos chunks and ' form almost a p ro tectiv e lay er. There is also a serious question whether the most p e lle ts could be ground-in commercial equipment although a th in r o l l crushed flakes are certain ly possible technically. In th e l a s t ru n , 1857-65-3, the b en to n ite was wet out f i r s t to avoid coating th e p e lle ts . P e lle ts were then added to the blend using the standard AEC 4 minute mix. The p ro p erties obtained j u s t about meet the c u rre n t SVB speci fi cati ons. I t can be concluded from these data t h a t the d ustless p e lle ts containing around 15% m oisture are more d i f f i c u l t to open than the c u rren t Supervisbestos but can be opened q u ite s a tis f a c to r ily under generally acceptable laboratory t e s t conditions. Our experience with SG-200 p e lle ts as SVB has demonstrated c le a r ly , however, th a t actual f ie ld te s tin g is the only way to get a re lia b le assessment of product performance. We have thus gone as f a r as p ra c tic a l in .th e laboratory w ith reasonably encouraging r e s u lts . In order to e sta b lish technical f e a s i b il it y in the end use i t is now necessary to determine whether the moist p e lle ts congeal in to a so lid mass when shipped and, i f n o t, whether these sm aller but heavier p e lle ts w ill ' open under f ie ld conditions. A prelim inary assessment of the shipping behavior can be made by shipping several sacks of the m oist p e lle ts a t the bottom of a re g u la r shipment. A f ie ld t e s t would require about 25 sacks (1250 pounds). Prelim inary discussions with the King City p la n t in d ic a te th a t th ere are serio u s technical problems in preparing such re la tiv e ly small q u a n titie s of m oist p e lle ts . As a compromise, i t . is suggested th a t about 1000 pounds of SG-200 f i l t e r cake be shipped to Niagara F a lls. Vie can extrude and dry i t to several m oisture' le v e ls , bag f t , and ship i t to Oklahoma C ity. This should provide a Reasonably good answer to the shipping question and a t le a s t an assessment of whether th ere is an immediate and obvious opening problem. HBR:cjb TABLE I CHARACTERISTICS OF WET SVB PELLETS Sample No. 1 2 3 4 % Moisture 37 32.6 20.0 13.1 Appearance As Is After Freezing Moist - sticky. P ellets so lid , stuck firmly together. Moist - somewhat sticky. Same as Sample #1. D efinitely moist. Did'not s tic k . P ellets free flowing. May be a l i t t l e harder. Sone, dry areas. P e lle ts free flowing. AEC SPECIFICATION TEST RESULTS - 20% MOISTURE SVB PELLETS Data Reference 1857-63-1 1957-63-2 1857-63-3 1857-63-4 1857-65-1 1857-65-2 1857-65-3 Procedure Standard AEG t e s t . Standard AEC mix. Open 2 minutes H.S.W.B. P ellets completely dry. Standard AEC t e s t . Standard AEC mix. Open 4 minutes on Hamilton Beach high speed. Open SVB p e lle ts 2 minutes H.S.W.B., then run standard AEC t e s t . Same opened p e ll e ts . AEC with Hamilton Beach - low speed. AEC t e s t except bentonite added to w ater alone and wet out. Then SVB p e lle ts added. AV PV YP ---- -- 60 13 94 Comments Did not open. - 16 5 22 25 3 44 Typical values. Few unopened lumps. Excellent properties. 628 Bentonite stuck to wet p e lle ts. 13 7 15 Marginal. 13 7 15 M arginal.