Characterization of rice husk as usded in conversion of zeolite beta with the effect of time and temperature variations

This study presents the characterization of rice husk ash by observing the characteristics of element functional groups for each of the samples. The effect of temperature and time of burning the rice husk were studied. Several researches have been performed to find the usage of the rice husk. Some of the studies have shown that rice husk is a major contributor for energy generation and as a raw material to develop industrial products such as, high quality silica ash and also production of zeolites. In this study, we are focus on the rice husk ash produced as a silica source for transformation of Zeolite Beta. The rice husk was burned inside the muffle furnace at different temperature and time to produce rice husk ash. The effect of burning at different temperature and time were studied. The rice husk ash obtained will have a high content of silica which will be observed. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy result is studied with the scan range of 4000cm−1until 400cm−1 where the obtained bond of elements are being observed. The peak at 800cm−1 shows the increasing in percentage of silica with the increasing of temperature and time of burning. From scanning electron microscope images shows that the surface roughness of the rice husk is greater than rice husk ash and the surface area become smaller when burning time was longer. The scanning image shows a porous structure where the highest concentration of silica is in the outer layer of the husk that is in amorphous form