In the present work, coal fly ash (CFA) was converted to zeolite (CFAZP) experimentally at atmospheric pressure via a conventional hydrothermal heating for 6 h at low temperature (90 +/- 3 degrees C) followed by microwave irradiation for 30 min. The synthesized products were characterized using XRD, TGA/DTA, SEM, PSD, BET, and cation-exchange capacity (CEC) techniques. The effect of microwave on the crystal growth of nucleated CFAZP at different solid/liquid ratios (suspended CFA mass to NaOH solution volume, g/mL) was studied. A three-variable, three level central composite statistical experimental design was applied to investigate the effect of the independent variables on the response function defined as the ratio of the characteristic peak intensity at 2 theta: 28 degrees of a sample to that of the same peak of a sample run for 24 h with conventional heating. The relative peak intensity of CFAZP as high as 97% was achieved under optimum experimental conditions with 1 M of NaOH concentration, 6 h of conventional heating followed by 30 min microwave irradiation with a solid/liquid ratio of 0.40 g/mL. Under constant microwave energy, higher solid/liquid ratios led to higher relative peak intensity of the product. (C) 2017 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.