EXTRACTION OF SILICA FROM SUGARCANE LEAVES FOR SYNTHESIS OF ZEOLITE AS ETHYLENE ADSORBENT TO PRESERVE FRESH FRUIT

Sugarcane is widely grown in the Northeastern region of Thailand. The sugarcane leaves are usually eliminated before harvesting by burning, producing PM 2.5 as air pollutant. Here, we explore an approach to produce high-purity silica from the sugarcane leaves by leaching with hydrochloric acid (2.0 M) and subsequent calcination at 500°C for 4 h. The obtained silica is in an amorphous phase. The silica purity is 83.4 ± 0.9 wt.%, better than the product without acid leaching (18.5 ± 0.2 wt.%). Then, the silica was used in the synthesis of zeolite by hydrothermal method. The obtained zeolite has LTA as a major phase, zeolite NaX and SOD as minor phases. The zeolite has a high ethylene-adsorbed volume of 5.26 cm3/g, comparable to the reported value in the literature. Consequently, the zeolite synthesized from the sugarcane leaves silica is a promising adsorbent to preserve fresh fruit.