Treatment of Brines Using Zeolite Synthesized from Fly Ash Derivative

Water is becoming an increasingly precious commodity in South Africa that will require effective management to supply all of South African future needs. There is an urgent need of treatment technologies by which the brine can be treated and pure water can be recovered as the discharge of the brine into water resources, both directly and indirectly, has been prohibited by law. Currently, the treatment of hypersaline streams resulting from industrial processing such as power generation, coal mining activities or water treatment is highly costly and problematic. It is therefore necessary to develop cost effective ways to manage brines for long term sustainability.

This paper investigates the treatment of brines using zeolites synthesized from fly ash derivatives. Zeolite P was synthesized hydrothermally from fly ash or fly ash derivatives. The removal of elements from the brine using the fly ash derivatives are compared to fly ash and commercial zeolite Y. It was found that the zeolite P synthesized from fly ash derivates had a greater removal of the major elements (ie. Ca, Mg) than the commercial zeolite Y. In terms of the removal of the minor elements (ie. Al, V, Be, Cr, As, Fe, Mn, Zn, Co and Se), zeolite P was found to correspond to that of fly ash and commercial zeolite Y.