Synthesis of adsorbent with zeolite structure from red mud and rice husk ash and its properties

Abstract

There are many researches in the modification of red mud as adsorbent for treatment of wastewater or waste gases. Yet, most of them have to face up with a thorny problem caused by remaining alkali in red mud. In this study, the material with zeolite structure was synthesized by fusion method using red mud with the remaining alkali and rice husk ash as raw materials. It comprised alkaline fusion followed by hydrothermal treatment with step – change of synthesis temperature. The synthesized materials were characterized by powder X–ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), BET and CO2 adsorption capacity. The influences on the quality of these materialswere investigated under various calcination temperatures, calcination times and the ratios of raw materials (based on SiO2/Al2O3 ratio). The optimum reaction parameters were determined. The results depicted that the sample treated at 600 °C for 2 hours with the ratio of SiO2/Al2O3 of 1.8 had the best adsorption capacity and total specific surface area compared with the others.