lYUNSATL! RATED FATTY ADDS 

 MWOGLYCSR105S 

 ALCOhOLS 

 'RNAPv AMMONIUM SALTS 

 SODIUM ALKVL SULFATES 



tfTY AMINES 

 TURATED FATTY ACIDS 

 jiOiYHYDROXY FATTY ACIDS 

 F.POXYACETOGLYCERIDES 



- ORE - FLOTATION. ALKYDS 



- EMULSIFIERS. CHEMICAL INTERMEDIATES 

 -- LU8RICANTS, PHARMACEUTICALS 



GERMICIOES, BACTERICIDES 



- DETER6ENTS , SURFACTANTS 



'OSION INHIBITORS, FLOTATION AGENTS 



- METALLIC SOAPS, PHARMACEUTICALS 



- LUBRICANTS, SURFACTANTS 



- PLASTICIZERS, CHEMICAL INTERMEDIATES 



I 



Figure 3. — Chemical derivatives of fish oils have many potential industrial uses which 

 have to be appraised before industry will be interested in using fish-oil products. 



enough to displace existing products 

 already in use. 



A second effort, to use fish oils as 

 ore flotation agents, is appearing much 

 more promising. Ore flotation consists of 

 preparing a froth with fatty acids or 

 other chemicals to which a portion of the 

 ore clings and then floating away the froth 

 and adhering material from the rest of the 

 ore. Flotation has been used for many 

 years. At one time fish oils were used 

 but, due to chemical research on competing 

 oils, fish oils are no longer employed. 

 In recent years a new need for flotation 

 processes has arisen which may cause a 

 huge demand for new flotation agents. The 

 rich iron ores which have been mined from 

 deposits in northern Minnesota and Michigan 

 are nearly depleted, leaving, however, vast 

 quantities of lower grade ores. These 

 ores are currently being partially concen- 

 trated by a magnetic process. This process 

 can not be made quite efficient enough to 

 do the job. It will reduce the impurities 

 down to about 8 percent. In order for 

 these ores to compete with foreign imports, 

 the impurities must be reduced to 6 percent 

 or less, something impossible to achieve 

 by the magnetic process. Research the 

 Bureau has been carrying out at the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota's School of Mines and 

 Metallurgy, has recently been successful 

 using fish-oil derivatives as flotation 



agents in reducing the impurities to less 

 than 2 percent. Iron ore concentration 

 plants have shown great interest in this 

 development which gives promise of even- 

 tual adaptation. If fish oils could 

 become the principal source for flotation 

 in the iron-ore flotation field, up to 

 one-third of all fish oils produced in the 

 United States would be required. 



The fish oil-iron ore flotation 

 research is carried out in a cooperative 

 program at the School of Mines and Metal- 

 lurgy. The ore to be concentrated is 

 first finely ground in a laboratory jar 

 mill. It is then mixed with water in a 

 flotation cell to which the fish-oil 

 derivative is added and air bubbled through. 

 This forms a foam to which the silica im- 

 purities selectively adher and the foam is 

 floated off. There results the residue 

 which is concentrated iron ore and which 

 is left behind in the flotation cell while 

 the silica impurities are floated away. 

 The commercial process is carried out in a 

 very similar way, but, of course, using 

 much larger scale equipment. 



As I pointed out earlier, fish oils 

 are not pure chemicals but rather mixtures 

 of many compounds which must be fractionated 

 before adopting them for commercial use. 

 Only a portion of the fish oils are of the 

 right chemical make-up to be useful for ore 



83 



