CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the study

Waste could be defined as any liquid, gas or solid product of human activities, regarded as
being useless. Solid waste usually takes the form of garbage, refuge and sludge (Leton and
Omotosho, 2004). Waste generation poses a serious problem all around the world with an
increase in human pollution both in devolved and developing countries. Nigeria being a nation
that exceeds 170 million people face the same problem, especially in municipal areas. The
waste generation scenario in Nigeria is of a great concern as the rate of its generation has gone
beyond the scope of various solid waste management systems especially due to the lack of
proper waste management programs (Geoffrey, 2005).

One of the major sources of solid waste generation is the pulp and paper industry. During the
manufacturing of various paper products, a substance known as paper sludge is generated as
an industrial waste. In 1995 over 8 million tonnes in the United states alone was generated
(Tebbut, 1995). This values nearly doubled in a decade (Amberg, 1988) and the global
production has been predicted to rise in the future due to the increase of human population
(Mabee and Roy, 2003).

An average of 35% of the feed material in the pulp and paper mills is rejected as waste at the
end of processing (Hanley, 1993). The rejects include wastewater sludge, causticizing wastes,
mill trash, demolition debris, wood yard waste and ash from the boilers. The composition of
the sludge generated is highly dependent on the characteristics of the raw materials used and
the method of processing in the paper mill. Though they may vary from factory to factory, they
generally are composed of inorganic fractions such as minerals, calcite, titanium oxide and
kaolin and an organic fraction known consisting of cellulose fibres and bacteria (Mailappa and
Suriyanarayanan, 2010).

In order to reduce the volume of these waste products, currently the waste generated by the
pulp and paper industry is handled by waste handling process incorporated into the mills and
is discharged into the air as stack gases, to the water as effluents and to the land in the form of
solid wastes and sludge to be landfilled, but there has been growing concerns over the
availability of space in existing landfills and landfills are now becoming difficult to site and
construct due to the stringent environmental regulations and public opposition (Thacker, 1995).
However, several options are being investigated such as the use of paper mill sludge ashes as
aggregates in the building industries (Garcia, 2010), manufacturing of absorbent materials and
transformation of the organic materials of the waste sludge into activated carbon and synthesis
of the inorganic fractions of the paper sludge into anorthite, gehlenite and zeolites (Waijima,
2004; Okada, 2008).

Zeolites are a group of crystalline, hydrated alumina-silicate minerals having a base structure
of a three-dimensional network of alumina (Al2O3) and silica (SiO4) tetrahedral that contain
exchangeable alkali or alkaline earth metal cations as well as water molecules, all having
considerably freedom of movement allowing easier cation exchange and reversible dehydration
(Barrer, 1978). These minerals occur natural as deposits in volcanic rocks but have some levels
of impurities that limit their utilization in some industries such as being used as a zeolite
catalyst for producing high grade gasoline which require a catalyst of high purity to prevent
unwanted side reactions. This is one of the reasons there are new researches being done to
produce higher quality synthetic zeolites and especially from cheap raw materials such as waste
products.

Paper sludge when calcined produces an amorphous and crystalline material called paper
sludge ash which has comparable characteristics with volcanic ash from which natural
occurring zeolites are derived. To tackle waste pollution in the pulp and paper industry, this
ash could be converted into zeolites (Henmi, 1989; Mun and Ahn, 2001). Zeolites are eco-
friendly minerals with the potential to remove toxic and radioactive materials from the
environment that poses a threat to human, animal and plant life. They are highly effective in
removing calcium and magnesium from hard-water, removal of heavy metals from water
streams such as lead that is highly toxic to human and absorption radioactive metallic ions from
waste streams in nuclear facilities (Mumpton 1999).

1.2. Statement of the problem

The generation of paper sludge poses a serious problem in today’s society and is increasing
due to the demand for paper products as a result of the increase in human population. Due to
the awareness of the environmental impact of refuge dumping, creation and operation of
landfills, a new system of waste management needs to be employed that does not just cover up
the waste material but instead converts it to an eco-friendlier material. Paper sludge ash has
characteristics comparable to volcanic ash from which zeolites are found thus treatment of this
ash can be done to synthesis zeolites consequently reducing the volume of solid waste from the
paper industry to landfills.

1.3. Aim and objectives of the study

1.3.1 Aim

The aim of this project is to synthesize zeolites from paper sludge.

1.3.2 Objectives

1. To convert paper sludge into paper sludge ash through the calcination process.
2. To synthesize zeolites from paper sludge ash.
3. To Identify the crystalline and mineralogical phases of silicon and aluminum in the
zeolite.
4. To compare the zeolite obtained from paper sludge with zeolites obtained using other
raw material.

1.4 Significance of the study

Paper sludge is a big contributor to landfills, raising environmental concerns, thus a eco-
friendlier approach to the treatment of the waste-streams in the pulp and paper industry would
be the conversion of the paper sludge into zeolites that can be used for various reusable catalyst
in other industries and to also to tackle toxicity and radioactive problems in the society. Since
the synthesis of zeolites is generally costly, the use of waste as a major raw material will
dramatically reduce the overhead cost of the process.

1.5 Scope of the study

The focus of this research is to synthesis zeolites from paper sludge by hydrothermal treatment
with caustic soda. The paper sludge used is calcined to produce paper sludge ash which then
serves as the precursor to the creation of the zeolites. The resulting product is then compared
with natural zeolites where both their qualities will be assessed.