Effect of seawater salinity on the synthesis of zeolite from coal fly ash

Abstract

A novel method for the synthesis of zeolite was developed in this paper. The synthesis was carried out by hydrothermal activation after alkali fusion and coal fly ash (CFA) was used as raw material with seawater of different salinities. Seawater salinity was varied from 32 to 88 for zeolite crystallization during the hydrothermal process. The results show that seawater salinity plays an important role in zeolite synthesis with CFA during hydrothermal treatment. The products were a mixture of NaX zeolite and hydroxysodalite; seawater salinity more strongly affected the crystallization than the type and chemical composition of the zeolites. The yield of CFA transformed into zeolite gradually rose with the increase in salinity, reaching a transformation rate of 48%–62% as the salinity increased from 32 to 88, respectively. The proposed method allows for the efficient disposal of by-products; therefore, the application of seawater in zeolite synthesis presents promising economic and ecological benefits.

Keywords

coal fly ash (CFA) / seawater salinity / zeolite synthesis

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30530080), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2006AA06Z362), and the National Key Technology R&D Program (No. 2006BAB03A12).

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