Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(3) Special 2014, Pages: 613-625 AENSI Journals Advances in Environmental Biology ISSN:1995-0756 EISSN: 1998-1066 Journal home page: http://www.aensiweb.com/aeb.html Corresponding Author: Ma’an F.R. AlKhatib, Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia Phone: +603 6196 4553, +601 6236 5704; Fax number: +603 6196 4442; E-mail: maan@iium.edu.my, dhakisalafi@live.com Morphological synthesis and environmental application of ZSM-5 zeolite crystals from combined low-water and fluoride syntheses routes 1 Mutiu K. Amosa, 1 Ma’an F.R. AlKhatib, 1 Mohammed S. Jami, 1 Dzun N. Jimat, 2 Owolabi, R. Uthman, 1 Suleyman A. Muyibi 1 Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia. 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Lagos, Nigeria. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 14 Feb 2014 Received in revised form 24 February 2014 Accepted 29 March 2014 Available online 14 April 2014 Key words: ZSM-5 crystals, Morphology, Adsorption, Petroleum Effluent, Si/Al Ratio ZSM-5 crystals have been morphologically prepared through the combination of Fluoride and Low-Water Synthesis Routes. This was done in order to bring about larger zeolite crystals with high Si/Al ratio and surface area suitable for environmental applications. The zeolite was analyzed to have crystal size between 200 – 218μm with a micropore volume of 0.79cm 3 /g. It was also found to possess a Si/Al ratio (SAR) of 194.4 with good adsorption and catalytic prowess when analyzed by SEM and XRD. The prepared zeolite was employed in the petroleum refinery wastewater treatment to evaluate its organic and inorganic removal efficacies as evident from the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Iron (Fe) contents adsorption where it exhibited 99% and 98% efficiency removal respectively. © 2014 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved. To Cite This Article: Mutiu K. Amosa, Ma’an F.R. AlKhatib, Mohammed S. Jami, Dzun N. Jimat, Owolabi, R. Uthman, Suleyman A. Muyibi., Morphological synthesis and environmental application of ZSM-5 zeolite crystals from combined low-water and fluoride syntheses routes. Adv. Environ. Biol., 8(3), 613-625, 2014 INTRODUCTION For the communities living close to crude oil exploration and/or processing sites, environmental quality and sustainability are fundamental to their overall wellbeing and development. According to UNDP, more than 60 per cent of the people in those regions usually depend on the natural environment for their livelihood. For many, the environmental resource base, which they use for agriculture and/or fishing, is their principal or sole source of food. The major pollution that usually leads to environmental damages of these livelihood resources is that water. Therefore, pollution poses significant risks to these human rights [1,2,3]. In order to mitigate these various pollutions in our environments, various methods of treatment have been devised and one of the prominent amongst them is adsorption process. It is observed that the most commonly employed crystalline materials for liquid adsorptive separations are zeolite-based structured materials [4]. The past six decades have seen a phenomenal and chronological progression in molecular sieve materials from the aluminosilicate zeolites to microporous silica polymorphs, microporous aluminophosphate-based polymorphs, metallosilicate and metallophosphate compositions, octahedral-tetrahedral frameworks, mesoporous molecular sieves, Zeolites among other definitions, are crystalline aluminosilicates with a three-dimensional framework structure that forms uniformly sized pores and cavities of molecular dimensions making them suitable for wide use in the industry for catalytic, sorption and ion-exchange applications. The types of assembly of cavities or channels in zeolite structures control the size of micropores, orientation of microporous channels, and the morphology of zeolite particles [5]. Morphology is originally related to the framework type and also closely related to the micropore size, crystal size, and shape, and directly affects the physicochemical properties of zeolites [5], making them suitable for wide use in the industry for catalytic, sorption and ion-exchange applications. In the nanotechnology world of today, zeolites have ceased to be minerals merely displayed in museums, and have become a commercial and scientific success-story since their large-scale utilization in industry [6]. Besides the natural types of zeolites, synthetic ones continued to spring out from various laboratory researches around the world to be applied in refining, environmental, polymer and chemical industries. Amongst other porous materials being employed commercially, zeolites have made an unprecedented impact in several industrial processes such as catalysis, adsorption, ion-exchanging, etc.