Assessment of Impacts of Dissolved Organic Matter and Dissolved Iron on the Performance of Amidoxime-Based Adsorbents for Seawater Uranium Extraction

Abstract

One critical challenge of the development of seawater uranium extraction is to make uranium adsorbents perform well in the complex real seawater matrix, which is comprised of many competing ions and natural organic substances. Here, we conducted a systematic study using a continuous-flow seawater flume system to assess the potential impacts of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and dissolved iron on the uranium uptake performance, including adsorbent reusability, of amidoxime-based adsorbents. In the 28-day exposure, the adsorbent exposed in dissolved Fe-spiked seawater (low DOM/high Fe) and humic acid-spiked seawater (high DOM/high Fe) showed lower uranium adsorption loadings (73% and 56% of adsorption loading, respectively) than the same adsorbent exposed in seawater without spiking (low DOM/low Fe). The uranium adsorption loading of the reused adsorbent (after uranium stripping by a mild bicarbonate elution) in the dissolved Fe-spiked seawater dropped substantially to only 24% of the loading in the unspike...