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Research progress on synthesis of zeolites from coal fly ash and environmental applications

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Abstract

The by-product of coal combustion, coal fly ash (CFA), has become one of the world’s most emitted solid wastes, and bulk utilization while achieving high value-added products is the focus of current research. Using CFA to prepare zeolite cannot only reduce environmental pressure, but also obtain high value-added products, which has a good market prospect. In this paper, the research progress of hydrothermal synthesis method of CFA zeolites is reviewed in detail and summarized several other synthetic methods of CFA zeolites. This review also presents an overview of CFA zeolites application in environmental applications like water treatment, gas adsorption and soil remediation. However, a considerable number of literature data have documented using CFA zeolites for water treatment, whereas research on CFA zeolites application to gas adsorption and soil remediation is still limited. In addition, the current status of basic research on the industrial production of CFA zeolites is briefly summarized, and the development trend of the synthetic zeolite of CFA is prospected. After the feasibility analysis of the industrial production of CFA zeolite, it is concluded that the only two methods with high feasibility for industrial application are two-step hydrothermal and alkali melting methods, and the industrial production technology still needs to be studied in depth.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51904278), the Fundamental Research Program of Shanxi Province (No. 202103021223277), the Taiyuan University of Science and Technology Doctoral Research Fund (No. 20212025), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (No. 20210302123218).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Xingyue Chen, Peng Zhang, Yang Wang, Wei Peng, Zhifeng Ren, Yihong Li & Baoshuai Chu

  2. Australia Institute for Innovative Materials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia

    Qiang Zhu

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  1. Xingyue Chen
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  2. Peng Zhang
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  3. Yang Wang
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  4. Wei Peng
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  5. Zhifeng Ren
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  6. Yihong Li
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  7. Baoshuai Chu
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  8. Qiang Zhu
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Correspondence to Peng Zhang.

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The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Highlights

• Up-to-date information on the preparation of zeolite from CFA were summarized.

• The applications of CFA zeolites in environmental protection field were reviewed.

• The feasibility analysis of industrial production of CFA zeolites were discussed.

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Chen, X., Zhang, P., Wang, Y. et al. Research progress on synthesis of zeolites from coal fly ash and environmental applications. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 17, 149 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1749-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1749-2

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