Study on characteristics and preparation of bindeiless BaX granules for separation of p-xylene

In this study, binderless zeolite BaX granule, an effective adsorbent for the separation of p-xylene was made. This adsorbent which has a sufficient strength, high specific surface area and selectivity to p-xylene was prepared by various steps, such as granulation process, calcination, binderless treatment, ion-exchange, and activation. In the granulation, the concentration of colloidal silica solution was controlled in order to confirm the effect of SiCO ₂ contents after binderless treatment. As a result, we confirmed that the compressive strength of granule after binderless treatment was increasing with increasing proportion of SiO₂ in the granule. And then Na-ion in granule was exchanged with Ba-ion by successive batch ion-exchange process. And then prepared adsorbents were tested for p-xylene separation by batch adsorption at 90 °C. As a results of batch adsortion test, we confirmed that prepared adsorbents have a high selectivity to p-xylene. Also, it could be conformed that the prepared binderless zeolite BaX has a sufficient compressive strength (0.450 kgf), high specific surface area (647.57 m²/g), high crystallinity (98.5% compared with zeolite NaX powder), and selectivity to p-xylene.