Investigation of Zeolite synthesis conditions from coal fly ash

Zeolites are microporous, aluminosilicateminerals. Generally they contain silicon, aluminium and oxygen in their framework and cations, water and/or other molecules within their pores. Zeolites are used in various applications in petrochemical industry, ion-exchange and separation and removal of gases and solvents, water treatment, nuclear industry, agriculture, human and animal health, heating and cooling, cleaning materials industry, construction industry, precious stones, fields, aquarium filtration. Zeolites have a porous structure that can accommodate a wide variety of cations, such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and others.One of the important processes used to carry out zeolite synthesis is sol-gel processing. The preparation of synthetic zeolites from chemical reagents is expensive. Therefore, in order to reduce costs, it is necessary to use cheaper aluminosilicate bearing raw materials, such as clay minerals, fly ash etc., to produce synthetic zeolites.This research concerns the synthesis of zeolites and zeotypes derived from low-cost materials like fly ash. The raw materials were activated by two different routes: alkaline fusion prior to hydrothermal synthesis and classic alkaline hydrothermal synthesis. The process of synthesis was optimized by applying a wide range of experimental conditions with a wide range of reaction temperature, time, mineralizer concentration and solid/solution ratio.Over fifteen million tonnes of fly ash are generated annually from coal combustion by Turkey thermal power plants and its disposal poses major challenges and serious environmental and economic problems.In this study, conditions for synthetic zeolite production from fly ashes generated from some thermal power plants in Aegean Region (A thousand and thirty four MW Soma TPP; six hundred and thirty MW Yatağan TPP and six hundred and thirty MW Kemerköy TPP) by fusion/hydrothermal processes were investigated.