scholarly journals Progress in the Utilization of Coal Fly Ash by Conversion to Zeolites with Green Energy Applications

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silviya Boycheva ◽  
Denitza Zgureva ◽  
Katerina Lazarova ◽  
Tsvetanka Babeva ◽  
Cyril Popov ◽  
...  

Fly ash (FA) from lignite coal combusted in different Thermal Power Plants (TPPs) was used for the synthesis of zeolites (FAZs) of the Na-X type by alkaline activation via three laboratory procedures. FAZs were characterized with respect to their morphology, phase composition and surface properties, which predetermine their suitability for applications as catalysts and adsorbents. FAZs were subsequently modified with metal oxides (CuO) to improve their catalytic properties. The catalytic activity of non-modified and CuO-modified FAZs in the total oxidation of volatile organic compounds was investigated. FAZs were studied for their potential to retain CO2, as their favorable surface characteristics and the presence of iron oxides make them suitable for carbon capture technologies. Thin films of FAZs were deposited by in situ crystallization, and investigated for their morphology and optical sensitivity when exposed to pollutants in the gas phase, e.g., acetone. This study contributes to the development of novel technological solutions for the smart and valuable utilization of FA in the context of the circular economy and green energy production.

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1267
Author(s):  
David Längauer ◽  
Vladimír Čablík ◽  
Slavomír Hredzák ◽  
Anton Zubrik ◽  
Marek Matik ◽  
...  

Large amounts of coal combustion products (as solid products of thermal power plants) with different chemical and physical properties cause serious environmental problems. Even though coal fly ash is a coal combustion product, it has a wide range of applications (e.g., in construction, metallurgy, chemical production, reclamation etc.). One of its potential uses is in zeolitization to obtain a higher added value of the product. The aim of this paper is to produce a material with sufficient textural properties used, for example, for environmental purposes (an adsorbent) and/or storage material. In practice, the coal fly ash (No. 1 and No. 2) from Czech power plants was firstly characterized in detail (X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX), particle size measurement, and textural analysis), and then it was hydrothermally treated to synthetize zeolites. Different concentrations of NaOH, LiCl, Al2O3, and aqueous glass; different temperature effects (90–120 °C); and different process lengths (6–48 h) were studied. Furthermore, most of the experiments were supplemented with a crystallization phase that was run for 16 h at 50 °C. After qualitative product analysis (SEM-EDX, XRD, and textural analytics), quantitative XRD evaluation with an internal standard was used for zeolitization process evaluation. Sodalite (SOD), phillipsite (PHI), chabazite (CHA), faujasite-Na (FAU-Na), and faujasite-Ca (FAU-Ca) were obtained as the zeolite phases. The content of these zeolite phases ranged from 2.09 to 43.79%. The best conditions for the zeolite phase formation were as follows: 4 M NaOH, 4 mL 10% LiCl, liquid/solid ratio of 30:1, silica/alumina ratio change from 2:1 to 1:1, temperature of 120 °C, process time of 24 h, and a crystallization phase for 16 h at 50 °C.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinh-Hieu Vu ◽  
Hoang-Bac Bui ◽  
Bahareh Kalantar ◽  
Xuan-Nam Bui ◽  
Dinh-An Nguyen ◽  
...  

Coal-fired power stations are one of the primary sources of power generation in the world. This will produce considerable amounts of fly ash from these power stations each year. To highlight the potential environmental hazards of these materials, this study is carried out to evaluate the characterization of fly ashes produced in thermal power plants in northern Vietnam. Fly ash was firstly fractionated according to size, and the fractions were characterized. Then, each of these fractions was analyzed with regard to their mineralogical features, morphological and physicochemical properties. The analytical results indicate a striking difference in terms of the characteristics of particles. It was found that magnetic fractions are composed of magnetite hematite and, to a lower rate, mullite, and quartz. Chemical analyses indicate that the non-magnetic components mainly consist of quartz and mullite as their primary mineral phases. As the main conclusion of this research, it is found that the magnetic and non-magnetic components differ in terms of shape, carbon content and mineralogical composition. In addition, it was found that magnetic components can be characterized as more spheroidal components compared to non-magnetic ones. This comprehensive characterization not only offers a certain guideline regarding the uses of different ash fractions but it will also provide valuable information on this common combustion process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Pires dos Santos ◽  
Jorge Martins ◽  
Carlos Gadelha ◽  
Benildo Cavada ◽  
Alessandro Victor Albertini ◽  
...  

Coal ash is a byproduct of mineral coal combustion in thermal power plants. This residue is responsible for many environmental problems because it pollutes soil, water, and air. Thus, it is important to find ways to reuse it. In this study, coal fly ash, obtained from the Presidente Médici Thermal Power Plant, was utilized in the preparation of ceramic supports for the immobilization of the enzyme invertase and subsequent hydrolysis of sucrose. Coal fly ash supports were prepared at several compaction pressures (63.66–318.30 MPa) and sintered at 1200°C for 4 h. Mineralogical composition (by X-ray diffraction) and surface area were studied. The ceramic prepared with 318.30 MPa presented the highest surface area (35 m2/g) and amount of immobilized enzyme per g of support (76.6 mg/g). In assays involving sucrose inversion, it showed a high degree of hydrolysis (around 81%) even after nine reuses and 30 days’ storage. Therefore, coal fly ash ceramics were demonstrated to be a promising biotechnological alternative as an immobilization support for the hydrolysis of sucrose.


2020 ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Silviya Boycheva ◽  
Denitza Zgureva

Coal fly ash generated in Thermal Power Plants is utilized for synthesis of zeolites due to its aluminosilicate composition. The highest degree of zeolitization of coal ash in a particular zeolite phase is achieved by double-stage synthesis involving successive alkaline melting and hydrothermal activation of the reaction mixtures, while the uniform distribution of the iron oxides transferred from the raw coal ash is ensured by ultrasonic treatment. However, the applied melting step results in the oxidation of the magnetic iron oxide phases to non-magnetic ones, which results in the loss of magnetic properties of the resulting materials. The present investigation focuses on an improved double- stage synthesis procedure by the addition of raw coal ash containing magnetite between high temperature and low temperature processing. In this way, the magnetic phase is retained in the final product and the magnetic properties of the zeolites are preserved, which is important for their application in the adsorption of pollutants from wastewater.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1101 ◽  
pp. 149-152
Author(s):  
Widi Astuti ◽  
Triastuti Sulistyaningsih ◽  
Dewi Selvia Fardhyanti

The major problem in coal-based thermal power plants is related to solid waste called coal fly ash (CFA). CFA is mainly composed of some oxides including SiO2, Al2O3 having active site and unburned carbon as a mesopore that enables it to act as a dual site adsorbent for heavy metals including Cr (VI). To get different characters of dual site, CFA was treated by sulfuric acid (H2SO4) at different concentrations, temperatures and reaction time. Furthermore, treated CFA were used as an adsorbent to adsorb Cr (VI) in aqueous solutions. Equilibrium data were evaluated by single site and dual site isotherm models. It can be concluded, although unburned carbon contributes on the Cr (VI) adsorption, the existence of unburned carbon decreases the amount of Cr (VI) adsorbed because unburned carbon can plug active sites where dominant adsorption occurs. However, dual site isotherm model yielded excellent fit with equilibrium data.


Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1067
Author(s):  
Virendra Kumar Yadav ◽  
Krishna Kumar Yadav ◽  
Vineet Tirth ◽  
Ashok Jangid ◽  
G. Gnanamoorthy ◽  
...  

Coal fly ash (CFA) is a major global pollutant produced by thermal power plants during the generation of electricity. A significant amount of coal fly ash is dumped every year in the near vicinity of the thermal power plants, resulting in the spoilage of agricultural land. CFA has numerous value-added structural elements, such as cenospheres, plerospheres, ferrospheres, and carbon particles. Cenospheres are spherical-shaped solid-filled particles, formed during the combustion of coal in thermal power plants. They are lightweight, have high mechanical strength, and are rich in Al-Si particles. Due to cenospheres’ low weight and high mechanical strength, they are widely used as ceramic/nanoceramics material, fireproofing material, and in nanocomposites. They are also used directly, or after functionalization, as an adsorbent for environmental cleanup—especially for the removal of organic and inorganic contaminants from wastewater. By utilizing this waste material as an adsorbent, the whole process becomes economical and eco-friendly. In this review, we have highlighted the latest advances in the cenospheres recovery from fly ash and their application in ceramics and wastewater treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (9) ◽  
pp. 125-142
Author(s):  
Claudia Maria Simonescu ◽  
Alina Melinescu ◽  
Culita Daniela Cristina ◽  
Dhuha Hasan ◽  
Bianca Zarnescu ◽  
...  

The aim of this research paper is to present a simple and efficient method to prepare zeolite materials from thermal power plant fly ash which is one of the most important waste resulted from power plants. The method of preparation of zeolite materials consists of alkaline activation followed by calcination at different temperatures. The zeolite materials prepared were studied by FT-IR spectroscopy, specific surface determination, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and particle size composition. XRF data indicated that the zeolites synthesized are characterized by Si/Al ratio between 1.21 and 1.26, being mainly composed of Na-P1 zeolite. The optimum conditions of cadmium ions removal process by adsorption onto zeolite materials have been determined. It was concluded that increase of calcination temperature has as result increase of specific surface area and cosequently the increase of sorption capacity. An equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic study has been performed. The high value of correlation coefficient for the Langmuir isotherm reveals that the Cd(II) sorption onto zeolite materials occurs as a monolayer coverage of Cd(II) ions on homogenous zeolite surface. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model fits the experimental results of the Cd(II) sorption onto zeolite materials processes. As a results, the mechanism involved in Cd(II) sorption onto zeolite materials is based on chemical reactions. The thermodynamic results indicate that the Cd(II) adsorption process is more encouraging at higher temperatures.The results established that valuable NaP1 zeolite materials with high adsorption capacity can be prepared from thermal power plant fly ash through a simple method. The materials prepared can be utilized to remediate cadmium ions-bearing wastewater.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Silviya Boycheva ◽  
Denitza Zgureva ◽  
Hristina Lazarova ◽  
Katerina Lazarova ◽  
Cyril Popov ◽  
...  

High-grade zeolite nanocomposites are synthesized utilizing solid by-products from combustion of coal for energy production in Thermal Power Plants applying alkaline aging, hydrothermal and fusion-hydrothermal activation procedures. The obtained coal ash zeolites were studied with respect to their chemical and phase composition, morphology, surface parameters and thermal properties. It was found that they are distinguished in nanocrystalline morphology and significant content of iron oxide nanoparticles (γ-Fe2O3, α-Fe2O3, γ-Fe3O4) and doping elements (Cu, Co, Mn, V, W, etc.) transferred from the raw coal ash, and therefore they are assumed as nanocomposites. Coal fly ash zeolite nanocomposites are characterized by a mixed micro-mesoporous texture, significant concentration of acidic Brønsted centers due to their high surface insaturation, high chemical and thermal stabilty. This unique combination of compositional and textural properties predetermines the application of these materials as catalysts for thermal oxidation processes, anticorrosion barrier coatings, carbon capture adsorbents, matrices for hosting functional groups, detergents etc. Examples for coal fly ash zeolite applications for substitution of critical raw materials in practice are provided.


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