Zeolite Na-P1 Derived from Palm Oil Mill Fly Ash: Synthesis and Characterization

Abstract

Palm oil mill fly ash is the solid waste of palm oil industry having silica content around 39 %. Synthetic Amorphous Silica (SAS) can be sinthesized from the fly ash by alkaline extraction method combine with sol-gel precipitation. In this research, the SAS was used as the raw material for zeolite Na-P1 synthesis by hydrothermal process. The synthesis process was done in stainless steel autoclave and the operating conditions were: pressure of 200 kPa, temperature of 120 °C and time of 8 hours. The aluminium source was Al2O3, the Si/Al ratio used were 5, 8 and 11 while the sodium hydroxide concentration were 1, 2 and 3 N. The zeolite obtained was characterized using XRD and the diffraction pattern was compared to the zeolite Na-P1 from other references.