Synthesis and Characterization of Faujasite Zeolite and Geopolymer from South African Coal Fly Ash
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 9
Abstract
South African coal fly ash (CFA) has been used as a source of silicon and aluminum in the synthesis of faujasite zeolite and geopolymer. However, the synthesis of faujasite zeolite from CFA filtrate does not favor the industrialization of the process because of the small yield of the final product and the huge amount of waste generated. This study suggests a way of synthesizing a pure faujasite and geopolymer from the same batch of CFA. A pure faujasite, with a yield of 43.28%, was synthesized from alumina and silica that were sequentially extracted from CFA using (95–99%) and NaOH (8 M), while the remaining slurry was transformed into a geopolymer. This process shows that a waste material (CFA) can be transformed into two valuable products without major waste generated.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 9 • September 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 25, 2016
Accepted: Nov 22, 2016
Published online: Apr 17, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Sep 17, 2017
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