Conversion of coal wastes into waste-cleaning materials. Quarterly progress report, July 1, 1996--September 30, 1996

In the last few months we have been working on the conversion of various fly ashes into zeolites. It was reported in the last report that by fusing fly ash with sodium hydroxide, all fly ashes that were studied can be converted into zeolites. Apparently, the fusion between the fly ash and sodium hydroxide produced sodium silicates which dissolve more readily than fly ash itself. The higher concentration of silicates within the solutions enhances the formation of zeolites. In this report, we summarize the results on the ion-exchange behavior of those treated fly ash with Cs{sup +}, Co{sup 2+} and Cu{sup 2+} ions as well as the characterization of the concentration of Si, Al, and Na in the curing solutions