Desenvolvimento de processo para obtenção de zeólita do tipo faujasita a partir de caulim de enchimento, caulim duro e tube press: aplicação como adsorvente.

Abstract

The main purpose of this work is zeolite synthesis of faujasite type (X and Y) from kaolin from the beneficiation process for paper coating, hard kaolin or Flint (mining of waste), tube press kaolin and filler kaolin. For each process zeolitização kaolin used in a chemical reactor a product of calcination of each material (metakaolin), sodium metasilicate, solid sodium hydroxide and distilled water, subjected at 110 ° C, reaction time 13 h Si / Al ratio of 2, 4 and 6. The products of each zeolite synthesis as well as the starting kaolin were characterized by chemical, physical and mineralogical analyzes such as X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, electron microscopy scan and thermal analysis. From these tests, it was observed that all the kaolin showed the formation of faujasite zeolite, but with differences in the peak intensities and their associations with other zeolite phases. Hard kaolin showed a lower potential zeolitization into the Si / Al ratio equal to 2 compared with the other two supposedly related to the iron present in its composition, thus made was a removal process of this constituent, by Mehra and Jackson method to verify a possible maximization in the synthesis process. New results indicated a complete modifications to the area and degree of structural order of faujasita phase, now moving into a major phase and there is an increase in the degree of structural order. As this reaction condition for consumption and a lower cost of raw materials and energy for calcination This medium was used as a starting point for an experimental design to evaluate the best reaction conditions. This design was varied some parameters of the synthesis as temperature, reaction time, Si / Al ratio and H2O / Na2O. The results of the statistical design showed the formation of faujasite in 32 points of study, as well as a great region with 8 points of planning, in this region point 13 proved the best reaction conditions. The zeolite synthesized at this point, showed an increase of ammonium adsorption capacity and percentage near 85 % efficiency up to 60 ppm. The Langmuir model was more suitable than the Freundlich and Sips in agreement with experimental data. The thermodynamic parameters showed that adsorption of NH4 + is a spontaneous and exothermic process, in which the temperature rise from 25 to 60 ° C promotes a small decrease in the adsorption capacity.