A laboratory simulation of desalting on calcareous building stone with wet sepiolite

13 páginas. -- The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5647-9In this study it has been developed a new laboratory methodology for the extraction of salts by wet sepiolite by the use of boxes. For this purpose, the methodology involves three successive applications of sepiolite and it was applied to four different types of calcareous building stone which were previously subjected to a cycle of salts (chlorides, nitrates and sulfates) that they had previously been introduced through their pore network. The obtained data revealed that the amounts of these anions extracted depended on the free porosity of each of these building stones in the first two extractions. It is concluded that in the third extraction it is possible to remove nearly all the salts upon application of this non-aggressive method (more than the 95% of the chlorides and nitrates and up to 88% of sulfates). In the case of sulfates the amount extracted is still dependent on free porosity in the third extraction.The authors are grateful for financial support for this work from the Ministry of Education and Science (CGL2007-62168BET and FEDER funds) and Ministry of Science and Innovation (MAT2010-20660)]Peer reviewe