Alkali Fusion Synthesis of Zeolitic Materials from Waste Dehydrated Cake Discharged from Recycling of Construction Waste Soil

Abstract

An inorganic cation exchanger, zeolitic material, was synthesized from dehydrated cake, which was discharged from recycling of construction waste soil, using the alkali fusion method. The waste clay was mixed with NaOH powder (the weight ratio of NaOH/waste clay = 1.0) and then heated at 300°C for 1 h to make a fused material. This fused material was then added to distilled water, and then heated at 90°C, 120°C, 150°C and 180°C for 12 h in reaction bombs under autogenous pressure in order to synthesize the cation exchanger. As a result, waste cake can be converted into fused material with high solubility, and zeolitic materials can be synthesized from the fused material. A mixture of zeolite-X and hydroxysodalite was synthesized at 90°C and 120°C, hydroxysodalite alone was synthesized at 150°C and 180°C. By increasing the synthesis temperature, the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the product decreased, and the highest CEC of the product at 90°C, including zeolite-X, was 2.06 mmol/g, which is 64.3% of commercial zeolite-13X (3.2 mmol/g).