BACKGROUND
Development of new selective chelating resins and fibers with large capacity, high selectivity and high sorption rate has received great interest particularly for boron removal from water. In this study, batch and column mode tests were performed to evaluate the abilities of boron selective ion exchange resins, Diaion CRB 02 and Diaion CRB 05, as well as a novel chelating fiber Chelest Fiber GRY‐HW for boron removal from geothermal water containing boron concentration of 10–11 mg B L−1.
RESULTS
Optimum adsorbent amounts were found to be 4.0 g resin L−1 geothermal water for Diaion CRB 02, 6.0 g resin L−1 geothermal water for Diaion CRB 05 and 8.0 g fiber L−1 geothermal water for Chelest Fiber GRY‐HW. The adsorbents exhibited promising adsorption capacity and their adsorption data for boron agreed well with both Langmuir and Freundlich models. It was found that the sorption kinetics was influenced by particle size of the adsorbents. The rate‐determining step for boron separation from geothermal water was found to be particle diffusion. According to the results of the column‐mode study, Diaion CRB 05 had a breakthrough capacity of 3.74 mg B mL−1 resin, whereas Chelest Fiber GRY‐HW and Diaion CRB 02 had a breakthrough capacity of 2.16 mg B mL−1 fiber and 1.66 mg B mL−1 resin, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
These results showed that boron selective chelating resins along with novel chelating fiber could be employed as efficient adsorbents to decrease boron concentration in geothermal water below the permissible level for irrigation water (<1.0 mg L−1). © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry