Coal fly ash is a waste, obtained from the combustion of coal in thermal power plants. Fly ash is harmful and its disposal is the major issue from an environmental point of view. As fly ash contains silica and alumina, it is thought of interest to use it for the synthesis of porous material like zeolite. In this work, the focus is on the utilization of fly ash for the synthesis of Mordenite type zeolite and its application in the toxic metals removal from aqueous solution. Coal fly ash based Mordenite type zeolite (FZS H ) was synthesized by seed assisted hydrothermal synthetic method using fly ash as a source of silica and alumina instead of using pure silica and alumina. The resultant material was characterized by various techniques, such as SEM-EDX, XRD, TGA, FT-IR, solid state NMR, BET surface area, etc. The XRD patterns confirm the presence of Mordenite phase in the FZS H zeolite. The sorption behavior of Pb 2 + and Cd 2 + towards commercial Mordenite and FZS H Mordenite type zeolite is investigated and compared. Percentage uptake obtained using FZS H and commercial Mordenite zeolite sorbent was found quite similar. The kinetic and thermodynamic studies reveal the favourable and spontaneous nature of the sorption.
The generation of a large quantity of waste coal fly ash (CFA) via coal combustion process during power generation is of major concern as disposal of such huge quantity of fly ash causes serious threats to the environment. There is an exigent need to find out the proper solution for its disposal/utilization to reduce its harmful effects. The composition of waste coal fly ash mostly consists of silica and alumina. Hence, the researchers are tempted to utilize waste coal fly ash as a starting ingredient to make value-added materials like zeolites. It is anticipated that such research efforts will act as a valuable aid to reduce the disposal cost of fly ash and ultimately reduce harmful effects of fly ash to the environment. In this review, various synthesis methods to synthesize different types of zeolites from CFA, such as Zeolite-A, Zeolite-X and Zeolite-P, have been summarized and their potential for various applications such as sorption and catalysis has been explored.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.