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Published on: 26 Dec 2023
Desiccants
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Clay Desiccants - Advantage of this Natural Minaral

It has never been easier to protect both your moisture sensitive products and the environment, thanks to Clariant’s line of bentonite clay desiccants. Desi Pak® offers you top of the line protection that’s good for your products, your supply chain, your customers and the environment.

It has never been easier to protect both your moisture sensitive products and the environment, thanks to Clariant’s line of bentonite clay desiccants. Desi Pak® offers you top of the line protection that’s good for your products, your supply chain, your customers and the environment.

Bentonite clay is a natural alternative to some of the other desiccant options out there. It can be sourced locally, reducing transport-related carbon footprints and environmental impact. Unlike silica gel desiccants that are manufactured synthetically mostly in China and then shipped worldwide, our bentonite clay is sourced from one of Clariant’s 40 bentonite mines, allowing for local distribution.

What’s more, the production and processing of Desi Pak requires no chemical additives or solvents: it is simply extruded, dried and graded. The process requires low energy and water consumption. Clariant is continuously working to reduce the amount of energy consumed even further, currently testing the possibility of sun drying the bentonite clay.

Desi-Pak clay desiccants are sold in unit size bags according to Mil-D-3464E. A unit, which is approximately one ounce of desiccant, is the amount of desiccant which will adsorb at least 3 grams of moisture vapor at 20% relative humidity and at least 6 grams of moisture vapor at 40% relative humidity at 25 degrees Celsius.

Desi Pak Bentonite Clay Desiccant Bags are available in Dupont Tyvek. Standard Bag Sizes Range from 1/6 Unit to 32 Units (5½ Grams to 1,056 Grams). One Unit of Desiccant Is Equal to approx. 33 Grams of Bentonite.

Desi Pak® bentonite clay desiccant benefits:

Effectively adsorb moisture in product packaging to combat and help prevent moisture’s damaging effects such as corrosion, mold and degradation.
Production of bentonite desiccants have less impact on the environment: no harsh chemicals used in production, and the re-cultivation and re-naturalizing of mined sites.
Used for a variety of industries such as semiconductor, electronic, logistics, industrial, food, pharmaceutical, military, machinery, and automobile.
We offers bentonite desiccants that meet all relevant MIL-Spec requirements for military and defense applications; as well as comply with JEDEC for semiconductor packaging; Single bags as standard according to DIN / AFNOR /MIL
Available in different configurations: bags, single packets, and continuous strips for automatic insertion.

When you choose Desi Pak desiccants, you can rest easy knowing that both your products and the environment are in good hands.

Silica Gel

Silica gel is an amorphous form of silicon dioxide, which is synthetically produced in the form of hard irregular granules hard regular beads.  It is the structure that makes silica gel a high capacity desiccant. Water molecules adhere to the Silica Gels surface because it exhibits a lower vapour pressure than the surrounding air. When equilibrium of equal pressure is reached, no more adsorption occured, thus the higher the humidity of the surrounding air, the greater the amount of water that is adsorbed before equilibrium is reached.

Silica gel is the physical adsorption of water vapour into its internal pores and there is no chemical reaction, no by products or side effects. Even when saturated with water vapour, silica gel still has the appearance of a dry product, its shape unchanged. It is non-corrosive, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, and chemically inert

Silica Gel is one of the oldest and most popular desiccant and adsorbent used for a wide number of industrial and consumer applications.

Silica gel is nearly harmless, which is why you find it in food products. Silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2), is the same material found in quartz. The gel form contains millions of tiny pores that can adsorb and hold moisture. Silica gel is essentially porous sand.

Silica gel can adsorb about 40 percent of its weight in moisture and can take the relative humidity in a closed container down to about 40 percent, it prevents all forms of Rust, Corrosion, Oxidation, Mildew, Fungus, Mold, Condensation and etc.

The orange gel will turns to dark green when saturated with moisture.

Desiccant packets are small sachets that can be filled with a variety of sorbent materials and are aimed at protecting healthcare products from degradation due to moisture. Desiccant packets help maintain drug stability and prolong shelf life inside healthcare packaging containers. With a variety of active materials, desiccant packets are available in pre-cut or as reel-wound Continu-Strip®, which can be efficiently automated on standard packaging equipment. 

Packets are ideal for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products that are susceptible to either chemical or physical degradation due to moisture. Silica gel (silicon dioxide) and molecular sieve (zeolite) are offered depending on the moisture adsorption attributes required for any given application. Activated carbon is used either independently or in combination with silica gel to provide odor adsorption properties.

Desiccant packets are often widely used for diagnostic and medical device applications to protect reagents, rapid tests, urinalysis strips, ELISA kits and a variety of in vitro and clinical diagnostic devices.

Colorcon offers desiccant packets that are fully compliant with US FDA and EU regulations for use in pharmaceutical applications and that comply with US Pharmaceopia USP <670> standards for pharmaceutical desiccants.