Synthesis of high ion exchange zeolites from coal fly ash

This study focuses on the synthesis at a pilot plant scale of zeolitic material obtained from the coal fly ashes of the Teruel and Narcea power plants in Spain. After the optimisation of the synthesis parameters at laboratory scale, the Teruel and Narcea fly ashes were selected as low and high glass fly ashes. The pilot plant scale experiments were carried out in a 10 m3 reactor of Clariant SA (Barcelona, Spain). The results allowed obtaining 1.1 and 2.2 tonnes of zeolitic material with 40 and 55% of NaP1 content, in two single batch experiments of 24 and 8 hours, for Teruel and Narcea fly ashes, respectively. The cation exchange capacities (CEC) of the final product reached 2.0 and 2.7 meq g-1 for Teruel and Narcea zeolitic material, respectively, which are very close to the usual values reached by the high quality natural zeolitic products. Finally, with the aim of testing possible applications of the commercial NaP1-IQE and pilot plant NaP1-Narcea zeolitic products in water decontamination, efficiency for metal uptake from waste waters from electroplating baths was investigated.