After carefully selecting the diatomaceous earth raw material, the product is produced by high‑temperature calcination at 700–900°C, followed by high‑pressure air‑jet pulverization and classification; it exhibits an orange‑yellow to reddish‑brown color.

Main chemical composition indicators of diatomaceous earth products

Main physicochemical and hygienic indicators of diatomaceous earth products

Diatomaceous earth is a sedimentary deposit formed from the fossilized remains of single-celled algae known as diatoms, which possess a unique property: they can absorb free silicon from water and incorporate it into their siliceous skeletons. Upon death, under specific geological conditions, these remains accumulate to form diatomaceous earth deposits.
Structure and Properties of Diatomaceous Earth:    
Diatomaceous earth is characterized by its porosity, low density, large surface area, relative incompressibility, and chemical stability. It offers thermal insulation, high-temperature resistance, and moderate adsorption capacity, with a specific surface area of 20 m²/g and 85% of its pores being permeable.
Due to its intrinsic properties, diatomaceous earth serves as a natural filter aid, filler, carrier, and coating material. To better harness these characteristics and meet diverse industrial and everyday needs, we subject it to a series of processing steps—drying, grinding, screening, calcination, grading, and re‑screening—to remove impurities and modify its particle size distribution, morphology, and surface properties, thereby optimizing its performance. The result is a comprehensive line of diatomaceous earth filter aids.
Applications of diatomaceous earth products:    
Currently, diatomaceous earth is primarily processed into a filtration material—diatomaceous earth filter aid—and is used in various solid–liquid separation applications. In the food industry, it finds use in beverages (particularly beer), fruit juices, and citric acid production; in the chemical industry, it is employed in petroleum, paints, and synthetic resins; in the pharmaceutical sector, it is utilized for filtering antibiotics, glucose, vitamins, and herbal extracts; and in environmental protection, it is applied to municipal water treatment, wastewater treatment, and industrial effluent management.
In addition, diatomaceous earth is used as a filler in dental materials, plastics, rubber, and other industries; as a carrier in the production of pesticides and fertilizers; and as a coating for cast pipes in the steel industry’s centrifugal casting process, where it enhances the elongation of pipe material and effectively extends the service life of molds—advantages unmatched by other cast‑pipe coatings. It is also employed as a weighting agent in oil well cementing and as a modifier for road asphalt.

Diatomaceous earth products can be classified into the following two major categories based on their applications:    
1. Diatomaceous earth filter aids    
This product series is suitable for filtering liquids of varying viscosities in industries such as brewing, beverage production, pharmaceuticals, sugar manufacturing, and chemical processing, and can be integrated with filtration equipment of different models both domestically and internationally.

Main Performance Indicators of Diatomaceous Earth Filter Aid

The main application areas of diatomaceous earth filter aids are:   
Seasonings: monosodium glutamate, soy sauce, vinegar;
Alcoholic beverages and drinks: beer, white liquor, yellow rice wine, fruit wine, wine, and various other beverages;
Pharmaceuticals: antibiotics, synthetic plasma, vitamins, traditional Chinese medicine extracts and decoctions, various liquid medications;
Water treatment applications: tap water, industrial water, industrial wastewater treatment, swimming pool water, and bathwater.
Chemical products: inorganic acids, organic acids, alkyd resins, titanium sulfate solution;
Industrial oils: lubricating oils, machine‑rolling and cooling oils, transformer oil, various motor oils, diesel fuel, gasoline, kerosene, petrochemical products, and metalworking coolants.
Edible oils: vegetable oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, tea seed oil, sesame oil, palm oil, rice bran oil, and lard.
Sugar industry category: fructose syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, glucose syrup, beet sugar, sweet glucose, honey;
Other categories: enzyme preparations, vegetable oils, algal polysaccharides, electrolyte solutions, dairy products, citric acid, gelatin, bone glue, and various other raw materials used for filtration; diatomaceous earth filter aids can be used to manufacture filter discs for pressure filtration.

2. Diatomaceous earth fillers, carriers, and adsorbents

Main Performance Indicators of Diatomaceous Earth Fillers and Supports

Main application areas:

Catalyst carriers, pesticide carriers, fertilizer carriers, rubber fillers, plastic fillers, paint and coating fillers, pesticide fillers, fertilizer fillers, and more. Pesticide fillers, cast‑pipe fillers, coating fillers, paper‑making fillers, feed‑grade fillers, ceramic fillers, and fillers for daily‑use chemical products (such as facial masks and other cosmetics, toothpaste, and mold‑release putty), among others.

Applications of Diatomaceous Earth in Environmental Protection  
Chuanyi Company, drawing on years of customer experience in the domestic environmental protection market, has developed and manufactured diatomaceous earth-based water treatment products that deliver remarkable results in decolorization and the removal of harmful odors. These products are widely used across various domestic wastewater treatment sectors, including the textile dyeing industry, chemical heavy-metal wastewater treatment, electroplating wastewater treatment, and municipal sewage treatment.

The principle of diatomaceous earth-based wastewater treatment  
Diatomaceous earth carries a negative surface charge; therefore, it can neutralize positively charged colloidal pollutants, inducing colloidal destabilization. However, the colloidal particles in municipal domestic wastewater or mixed industrial‑domestic effluents are predominantly negatively charged. When ordinary diatomaceous earth is used as a wastewater treatment agent, it can only compress the electrical double layer, failing to destabilize the colloids and resulting in poor treatment performance. Consequently, various modification strategies have been developed to enable diatomaceous earth to destabilize even negatively charged colloidal particles. For instance, surface modification with positively charged ions such as aluminum or iron, or the incorporation of additional flocculants to produce composite modified diatomaceous‑earth-based treatment agents, has been employed. In composite treatment agents that combine diatomaceous earth with other flocculants, diatomaceous earth serves as a structural scaffold for floc formation, enhancing floc architecture and thereby improving coagulation. This leads to denser flocs with superior settleability, addressing the common issue of loose, poorly settling flocs produced by conventional chemical flocculants. Moreover, owing to its exceptionally large specific surface area and strong surface adsorption capacity, destabilized colloids are readily adsorbed onto the diatomaceous earth, while the adsorbed contaminants also exhibit enhanced interparticle attraction. As a result, when used for wastewater treatment, modified diatomaceous earth rapidly forms flocs of larger size and higher density, with excellent stability; even after fragmentation, these flocs can undergo re‑flocculation—features that are unmatched by conventional aluminum‑ or iron‑based flocculants.
The large specific surface area, strong adsorption capacity, and surface charge of diatomaceous earth enable it, during wastewater treatment, not only to remove particulate and colloidal pollutants but also to effectively eliminate color and dissolved forms of phosphorus—one of the primary contributors to eutrophication—as well as metal ions. In particular, for municipal wastewater with a high proportion of industrial effluent, which may exhibit significant color and elevated concentrations of metal ions, a modified diatomaceous earth treatment system can, owing to its negatively charged surface, efficiently adsorb and remove a portion of the positively charged metal ions.
The process equipment used in diatomaceous earth–based wastewater treatment significantly influences its performance. Typically, hydraulic clarifiers are employed primarily in potable water treatment; however, for municipal wastewater—rich in organic matter and microorganisms—anaerobic reactions within the forming sludge‑suspension layer can generate gases, compromising the layer’s stability. Recent research has shown that by incorporating appropriate devices or techniques to maintain an anoxic condition in the clarifier, gas production can be effectively suppressed, ensuring the formation of a stable suspended‑sludge layer. Compared with vertical‑flow, horizontal‑flow, or radial‑flow sedimentation tanks, this approach markedly reduces chemical dosing and enhances the system’s buffering capacity. This is largely due to the screening effect of the suspended sludge layer, which retains floc particles; moreover, the diatomaceous earth remaining unsaturated in the suspension further adsorbs colloidal substances that have not yet flocculated, as well as dissolved pollutants in the water, thereby maximizing the efficacy of the added chemicals and minimizing their consumption. When chemical dosing is insufficient or when influent quality or flow rate experiences shocks, the suspended layer within the reactor can adsorb and trap contaminants, providing a degree of buffering and improving overall system stability.