Removal and recovery of uranium from aqueous solution by tea waste

Abstract

Experiments on the removal and recovery of U(VI) from aqueous solution by tea waste were conducted. The adsorbent was characterized by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer before and after the adsorption treatment. The removal of U(VI) amounts to 86.80 % at optimum pH 6. The adsorption process reaches its equilibrium in 12 h at 308 K, and the kinetic characteristic can be described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic equation. The amount of adsorption increases from 22.92 to 142.21 mg g−1 with the decrease of tea waste dosage from 100 to 10 mg for solution with an initial uranium concentration of 50 mg L−1. Desorption for the four strippants is higher than 80 %. The equilibrium data are more agreeable with Freundlich isotherm than Langmuir isotherm.