Transformation of Waste Coal Fly Ash into Zeolites for Environmental Applications

Abstract

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.