Adaptation of Bagasse Fly Ash, a Sugar Industry Solid Waste into Zeolitic Material for the Uptake of Phenol Bhavna Shah, a Ritesh Tailor, a and Ajay Shah b a Department of Chemistry, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat-395007, Guajrat, India; bhvana606@yahoo.co.in (for correspondence) b Science and Humanity Department, Polytechnic, Vidyabharti trust, Umrakh, Bardoli-1, Gujarat, India Published online 10 September 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ep.10492 Bagasse fly ash (BFA), a sugar industry waste was converted into zeolitic material (ZBFA) by alkaline hydrothermal treatment. The virgin BFA and synthe- sized ZBFA were characterized by various instrumental techniques viz. XRF, FTIR, PXRD. Zeolitazation achieved showed that zeolite-P was the dominant con- stituent of ZBFA. The physico-chemical properties of BFA and ZBFA were compared. Morphology of the sorb- ents was examined by SEM. The kinetic and thermody- namic data of sorbents were evaluated by Coats and Redfern method using Thermal Analysis (TGA, DTG, and DTA) data. The point of zero charge value of the sorbents determined by mass titration method showed higher value for ZBFA (pH 8.62) as compared with BFA (pH 5.80). The specific surface area of ZBFA increased to 505 m 2 /g (BFA 5 440 m 2 /g). Sorption capacities of BFA and ZBFA were examined by sorption of phenol at various operational parameters. The equilibrium data were analyzed by various adsorption isotherms viz. Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and D-R. Langmuir iso- therm best fits the experimental data for ZBFA (q m 5 35.43 mg/g) and BFA (q m 5 16.33 mg/g). The isotherms study indicates that the sorption capacity of synthetic zeolitic (ZBFA) products is significantly increased after alkaline hydrothermal treatment. Ó 2010 American Insti- tute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 30: 358–367, 2011 Keywords: Bagasse fly ash, zeolite-P, PXRD, SEM, phenol sorption INTRODUCTION Waste is a byproduct of economic growth. Contin- ued economic growth implies constant growth in waste outputs. Poor management of waste results in the inappropriate depletion of natural resources and potentially adverse effects on the environment, health and the economy. The present concept of waste management is to reduce, reuse and recycle the wastes in more efficient and simple method [1]. India has been the world’s largest producer of sugar since last few years with more than 575 sugar factories, which generate about 1500 tones of Bagasse fly ash (BFA) as byproduct per season. Most of the ash is uti- lized in low level land filling; a few parts are being utilized by ceramic, fertilizer and cementing indus- tries. Inappropriate dumping method of BFA creates soil pollution and also causes air pollution with an al- lergic problem to human being. Increasing concerns about the environmental consequences of such dis- posal have led to investigation into other possible uti- lization avenues. Furthermore, the conversion of low cost waste byproduct (BFA) into higher level product zeolitic bagasse fly ash (ZBFA) would make the envi- ronmentally friendly disposal. Several authors have reported the conversion of a sizable fraction of coal fly ash into zeolite by hydro- thermal treatment of ash with NaOH/KOH solution at elevated temperatures and pressures [2–12]. Recently more sophisticated treatments including the use of microwave irradiation [13] and fusion with NaOH Ó 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers 358 October 2011 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.30, No.3) DOI 10.1002/ep