Introduction

Abstract

Fly ash , a by-product from thermal power plant, is profusely available for several bulk applications as a civil engineering construction material and is very well known to the society around the globe since last three to four decades. Much of the fly ash is still lying unused in various thermal power plants and instigates daily various problems on the earth and the environmental. To deal with such issues, this book presents a new area of fly ash reuse/application as absorbent based on its physical, chemical, mineralogical and morphological characteristics, suitable for alkali activation of the fly ash. Several researchers have opined on such activations by conventional methods for zeolitization of the fly ash. Accordingly, this book is focused to compile all such inferences of the state-of-the-art, further challenges ahead, need of innovations for synthesis of higher grade of fly ash zeolites and their applications for environmental cleanup. Attempts have been made in this book to identify a suitable fly ash type for its effective zeolitization and to develop a novel “three step activation techniques” for this purpose with focus on reuse of any by-products. Based on various applications of the fly ash zeolites as absorbent and/or adsorbent and associated environmental safety, brief scope of the further research on fly ash has also been highlighted.