Abstract
Coal fly ash (CFA) derived synthetic zeolites have become popular with recent advances and its ever-expanding range of applications, particularly as an adsorbent for water and gas purification and as a binder or additive in the construction industry and agriculture. Among these applications, perpetual interest has been in utilization of CFA derived synthetic zeolites for removal of heavy metals from wastewater. We herein focus on utilization of locally available CFA for efficient adsorption of mercury from wastewater. To this end, experimental conditions were investigated so that to produce synthetic zeolites from Kazakhstani CFAs with conversion into zeolite up to 78%, which has remarkably high magnetite content. In particular, the effect of synthesis reaction temperature, reaction time, and loading of adsorbent were systematically investigated and optimized. All produced synthetic zeolites and the respective CFAs were characterized using XRD, XRF, PSA and porosimetric instruments to obtain microstructural and mineralogical data. Furthermore, the synthesized zeolites were studied for the removal of mercury from aqueous solutions. A comparison of removal eficiency and its relationship to the physical and chemical properties of the synthetic zeolites were analyzed and interpreted.
Highlights
Coal fly ash (CFA) is a by-product from combustion of coal in electric power stations all over the world
Among the available raw materials coal fly ash is considered as one of the suitable due to low cost, abundance and possibility to produce various zeolites depending on reaction conditions [11], in contrast to natural zeolites that require costly modifications in order to be suitable for industrial application
It should be noted that the effect of reaction duration is essential, as parameter set No 3 reveals the third highest yield of zeolite; it could be expected that zeolite formation directly proportional to reaction time
Summary
Coal fly ash (CFA) is a by-product from combustion of coal in electric power stations all over the world. A number of successful studies on pilot-scale or industrial production of synthetic zeolites from coal fly ash have been conducted already [9,10,11] According to these studies it is practical and economically feasible to manufacture zeolitic adsorbents from coal fly ash that allows promising utilization solution for this byproduct of coal combustion [11]. All these sttudies imply the necessity for production of synthetic zeolites in large quantities to effectively utilize value-added raw material. Zeolite has higher cation exchange capacity (CEC), larger surface area and demonstrates superior thermal stability [18] that further enhances the utilization
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