Use of zeolitized pumice waste as a water softening agent

Important pumice quarries are located on the island of Lipari (Italy) where an intense activity of extraction, transformation and trade of pumice takes place. Nevertheless, the finest fraction amounting to about 60% of mined pumice is discarded and disposed off in open-sky pits. This implies economic losses for mining industries and environmental problems for neighbouring villages. In order to find a sustainable use of this waste, we resumed and improved an old extractive process with aqueous sodium alkali, where a sodium silicate concentrated solution was produced together with an unextracted residue partially converted into zeolite P in Na+ form and now we are searching for suitable applications of this residue. In this paper, we relate about its use as a low cost water softening agent on the basis of results obtained from several tests both in batch systems and column. They show that, at room temperature, the residue works well with calcium and badly with magnesium, whereas, at 60 degrees C, also the affinity toward Mg ions increases to acceptable levels. Repeated regenerations of the residue with concentrated NaCl solutions do not appreciably compromise the performance. The limits for the possible use as water softening agent are defined.