Narrow Results

Consumption of coal is increasing as an alternative for petroleum. During the process, coal fly ash particles are produced and are disposed as an industrial waste. Coal ash contains toxic heavy metals, which leads to a concern about the possibility of leakage into environment. The spatial distribution and chemical form as well as elemental concentration of the toxic elements in the particles are important factors in assessing the leakage into the environment. In this study, we analyzed individual coal fly ash particles with 1 µm spatial resolution by using the simultaneous micro-PIXE/RBS/off-axis STIM system at Tohoku University. Eighty fly ash particles were analyzed. The particles are mainly composed of O, Si and Al and estimated as dioxide. Hydrogen and carbon are not observed in these particles. V, Zn, Sr, Cu, Ni, Mn, Cr and As are contained in the particles. The content of each element is quite different in each particle. These elements are distributed homogeneously. As an exception, Al, Ca, Fe, Zn, As and Zr are distributed on the surface of the particle which might be related to the combustion process.

Zeolites with unique framework structure have wide applications, such as ions’ exchangers, molecular sieves and catalysts. This work focused on the synthesis and characterization of zeolite by recycling coal fly ash as the starting material via hydrothermal method. The intermediate phases and final products were characterized by XRF, XRD, FT-IR, SEM and BET techniques. The effects of aging time on the crystallization/transformation of zeolite were discussed. The results showed that the alkali-activated coal fly ash after hydrothermal process could lead to the formation of zeolite Na-P1. Furthermore, the aging treatment benefited the formation of homogenous zeolite Na-P1 with smaller particle size, larger specific surface area, total pore volume and pore size.