Date

2022-1-26

Author

Kirdeciler, Salih Kaan

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Synthesis of zeolites from laboratory-grade chemicals is an expensive way to produce these unique particles. Zeolite 3A, 4A, 5A among Linde Type A (LTA) zeolites, and zeolite 13X among the Faujasite (FAU) type are highly valuable commercial products for various application fields, such as catalysis, water sorption, and detergent industries as water softeners. There is still great interest in finding alternative synthesis routes that will reduce the production cost of these materials in high demand. Due to these facts, using locally available raw materials as starting chemicals for zeolite synthesis has been of significant importance. Accordingly, the main focus of this thesis was using national Turkish local sources to obtain a synthetic material of high demand in Turkey, which is being fully imported from abroad. During zeolite conversion using locally available minerals, the challenge in the process is the impurities existing in the raw materials such as quartz. The aim is to investigate the synthesis of high purity zeolite 4A and zeolite 13X from Turkish raw kaolin and feldspar sources with a cost-effective approach and minimum impurity in the final products. For this purpose, meta-kaolinization, alkali fusion, and one-pot fusion methods for kaolin; alkali fusion and one-pot fusion methods for sodium feldspar were optimized for locally available raw materials, followed by hydrothermal synthesis. These processes opened up the possibility of obtaining zeolitic materials from locally available minerals, particularly sodium feldspar, which Turkey possesses highest amount of reserve in the world. Another aspect of this thesis was to use sodium carbonate as an alkali fusion agent to synthesize desired zeolites as an environmentally friendly alternative to sodium hydroxide. The third highlight of this thesis was to adapt one-pot fusion method to synthesize zeolite 3A and zeolite 5A directly, which eliminates the traditionally used ion-exchange procedures for the first time. Lastly, the whole process was scaled-up, allowing one to produce higher amount of products and thus testing the products in real industrial applications. In this way, the locally produced zeolitic materials were tested in various industrial areas to see whether their quality specifications were met. In conclusion, high purity industrial grade zeolites were successfully synthesized from Turkey's various kaolin and sodium feldspar sources. The one-pot fusion method was found to be adaptable to different alkali fusible aluminosilicate raw materials.

Subject Keywords

Zeolite 4A, Zeolite 13X, one-pot fusion, pilot-scale zeolite production

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/96713

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis