Conversion of rice hull ash into soluble sodium silicate

Sodium silicate is used as raw material for several purposes: silica gel production, preparation of catalysts, inks, load for medicines, concrete hardening accelerator, component of detergents and soaps, refractory constituent and deflocculant in clay slurries. In this work sodium silicate was produced by reacting rice hull ash (RHA) and aqueous sodium hydroxide, in open and closed reaction systems. The studied process variables were time, temperature of reaction and composition of the reaction mixture (expressed in terms of molar ratios NaOH/SiO2 and H2O/SiO2). About 90% silica conversion contained in the RHA into sodium silicate was achieved in closed system at 200 °C. The results showed that sodium silicate production from RHA can generate aggregate value to this residue.