ZSM-5 zeolite from siliceous palm oil battom ash under hydrotermal condition with varying aging time

Solid oil palm waste in the form of empty bunches, shells and fiber (coir) were used by factories as fuel in boiler. The combustion process in this boiler leaved byproducts in the form of fly ash and bottom ash. The content of palm oil fly ash and bottom ash are 37.98% (100 kg/week) and 64.36% (3-5 tons/ week), respectively. Bottom ash was produced more, but so far it has only been used as plant fertilizer and brick replacement materials. The high silica content allowed it to be used as a source of Si in the manufacture of ZSM-5 (Zeolite Socony Mobil-5), which is a type of zeolite that was widely used in oil hydrocracking. ZSM-5 zeolites were synthesized from palm oil bottom ash (POBA) as silica source successfully using Tetrapropylammonium bromide (TPABr) as a micropore structure directing agent under hydrothermal condition at temperatue of 150 oC. The samples were characterized by FTIR, XRD, XRF, SEM, and BET surface area measurements in order to study the aging time effect. Based on FTIR result, the pentasil group has appeared on the synthesis ZSM-5 which is the secondary building structure of zeolit Mordenite Framework Inverted (MFI). In the results of XRD characterization, there were a typical peak of ZSM-5, i.e. 2θ of 7.9233o; 8.8171o; 22.9796o and 23.9639o at 10 hours without aging. The increased aging time caused the formation of zeolites with other types, i.e. faujasite, clinoptilolite and LTA (Zeolite A).