Obtaining nano silica by enriching from thermal waters

In this study, electrocoagulation method was used to obtain nano silica from geothermal waters belonging to the Afyonkarahisar region. Water samples taken from the return water connected to the AFJET Y260 thermal water well were used in the study, and experiments were conducted without altering the chemical properties, pH, and temperature values of the existing water. In the experimental setup, iron electrode rods and an iron electrode plate were connected as anode and cathode, respectively. Different current densities and pump speeds were used to feed the system during the experiments. In the initial stage, experiments were conducted with pure water supplemented with NaCl to characterize the behavior of the experimental setup containing iron electrode rods and plates. In the next stage, the electrocoagulation system was continuously fed with thermal water from outside for 30 minutes, which means open-circuit experiments were performed. In another stage, the 30-minute experiments were divided into two stages: the first 15 minutes were open-circuit, and in the following 15 minutes, the water subjected to electrocoagulation was fed back into the experimental setup for seeding (CEED). The aim of all these studies was to select the correct current value and pump speed for the final experiments to obtain nano silica. The thermal waters obtained after the electrocoagulation processes were subjected to filtration processes. The quantities of the obtained solids were weighed, and then the filtered solids were poured onto a slide, rinsed with distilled water, and uniformly distributed on the slide for examination under an optical microscope. In the final experiments to obtain nano silica, closed-loop thermal water experiments and closed-loop thermal water experiments with silane addition were conducted at three selected electric current and pump speed values. In these experiments, closed-loop experiments with seeding were conducted by operating the silane-containing closed-loop electrocoagulation in the laboratory environment. Finally, SEM and EDX analyses were performed to examine the filtered solids, their weights, and particle distributions. The results of the closed-loop thermal water experiments were compared with the results of the closed-loop experiments with silane in terms of particle distributions in SEM, particle size of the obtained product, and the types and ratios of the retained solid materials in EDX analysis.