Screening of Adsorbents for Boron in Brine

Abstract

Boron adsorptivity was measured on 46 kinds of inorganic and 12 kinds of organic adsorbents, using the residual brine after salt production from seawater. Hydrous cerium oxide, hydrous zirconium oxide, and N-glucamine type resin with N-methyl (polyhydroxyl) amino group each showed a high adsorptive capacity (above 5 mg/g) for boron. Adsorption isotherms of boron on these samples suggested that hydrous cerium oxide and glucamine type resin had adsorption sites selective for boron in a diluted solution. A column adsorption study of the resin showed that boron was effectively removed from the brine by passing it through the resin at a space velocity of 4 h^-1. The adsorbed boron could be effectively eluted by using a 2 M HCl solution as an eluent.