Synthesis of Zeolites ZSM-5 and ZSM-48 from Gasification Ashes of Agricultural Wastes

Over 800 thousand tons per year (TPY) agricultural biowastes, such as sugar cane bagasse, sugarcane leaf, rice straw, rice husk and corn leaf, are produced in Taiwan. These biomasses are the major types of agricultural wastes and are abundantly available. However, these biowastes cause disposal and landfill problems. Ossification ashes of the agricultural biowastes containing 70-95 % amorphous silica would make the utilization system of agricultural biowaste ashes become highly economically and environmentally attractive. Experimentally, high crystallinity (99%$^{+}$) zeolites ZSM-5 and ZSM-48 synthesized from the reaction mixtures containing a silica source from ashes of these biowastes gasification were investigated. Tetrapropylammonium bromide (TPABr) and 1,6-diamino-hexane (C$_{6}$ DN) were used as structure-directing agents in syntheses of ZSM-5 and ZSM-48, respectively. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) data indicated that ZSM-5 or ZSM-48 with a high crystallinity can be obtained within 48 hours of crystallization in the high pressure (15-20 atm) autoclave at 393-473 K. The Si/Al ratios of synthetic zeolite products were determined by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and induced couple plasma/mass spectroscopy (ICP/MS). It was observed that the ZSM-5 crystals a.e composed of hexagonal rod-shaped crystals with typically 8-13 пm in size by SEM. In addition, ZSM-48 crystalline materials are composed of spherical aggregates of needle-shaped or rod-like crystals with typically 2-3 пm in diameter and 6-8 пm in length.h.