Removal of^234,238U,²²⁶Ra,²¹⁰Po and²¹⁰Pb from drinking water by ion exchange

Abstract

Six organic and five inorganic ion exchangers were studied for the removal of natural radionuclides from drinking water. In the first phase, distribution coefficients (K D ) of uranium and radium were determined in three model solutions: a good quality water, an FeϪMn-rich water and a saline water simulant. The exchangers showing highest K D 's for U and Ra were tested in column mode experiments for the removal of U, 226 Ra, 210 Po and 210 Pb from a real ground water. Considering the total 1800 processed bed volumes, the best decontamination factors (DF) for U, 20Ϫ120, were obtained with the strong base anion exchange resin. The most efficient exchangers for the removal of 226 Ra were the weak and strong cation resins and zeolite A. With use of long regeneration intervals, conventional organic resins are thus most suitable for the removal of radionuclides. When only a few hundred bed volumes were processed, with the corresponding regeneration interval about one week, the aminophosphonate resin was most effective for the removal of both uranium and radium. 210 Po and 210 Pb in ground water were mainly bound in particles and adsorbed on the surface of the anion resins. The use of the aminophosphonate resin to remove uranium and radium would therefore require an anion resin to take up polonium and lead.

Influence of anionic species on uranium separation from acid mine water using strong base resins

“…where C 0 and C are the uranium concentration in solution before and after contact; V the solution volume (mL) and m is the dry resin mass (g) [13,14,17].…”

“…The majority of the studies for uranium removal are based on the presence of species like UO 2 (CO 3 ) 2 2− and UO 2 (CO 3 ) 3 4− in groundwater. In acid mine drainage, where stable anionic uranium complex is mainly present as UO 2 (SO 4 ) 3 4− , the literature is scarce [5,[13][14][15][16][17].…”

Characterization of the sorption of uranium(VI) on different complexing resins

“…Chemical separation commonly employs ion-exchange and chelating resins [3,4,5,6]. The choice of the best operational conditions for sorption and elution of metal ions is a problem mostly dealt with on a purely experimental basis, while they could be usefully predicted if sorption equilibria were known.…”

Effects of pH and uranium concentration on the removal of uranium from drinking water by ion exchange

“…The other resin, chelating aminophosphonate resin, has been reported [5] to be efficient for separation of uranyl ions in acidic conditions. In our earlier study [6] it was found that at pHs around 8 the SBA resin was a superior ion exchanger for uranium. The aminophosphonate resin took up uranium rather efficiently as well but its processing capacity was much lower than that of SBA resin.…”