Producing a synthetic zeolite from secondary coal fly ash

Secondary coal fly ash is known as a by-product produced by the extracting alumina industry from high-alumina fly ash, which is always considered to be solid waste. Zeolitization of secondary coal fly ash offers an opportunity to create value-added products from this industrial solid waste. The influence of synthesis parameters on zeolite NaA such as alkalinity, the molar ratio of SiO2/Al2O3, crystallization time and temperature was investigated in this paper. It was found that the types of synthetic zeolites produced were to be highly dependent on the conditions of the crystallization process. Calcium ion exchange capacity and whiteness measurements revealed that the synthesized product meets the standard for being used as detergent, indicating a promising use as a builder in detergent, ion-exchangers or selective adsorbents. Yield of up to a maximum of 1.54 g/g of ash was produced for zeolite NaA from the secondary coal fly ash residue. This result presents a potential use of the secondary coal fly ash to obtain a high value-added product by a cheap and alternative zeolitization procedure.