Small- to large-scale comparisons of cesium ion exchange performance with spherical resorcinol formaldehyde resin

Abstract

ABSTRACTIon exchange performance using spherical resorcinol formaldehyde resin was compared at three process scales (10 mL, 34 gal, and 297 gal). The small-scale test demonstrated earlier cesium breakthrough, but higher cesium capacity, relative to the large-scale tests. The low superficial flow velocity at the small scale impacted the cesium load profile resulting in a longer transition zone. Based on these results, small-scale column test results with actual tank waste will likely be worst case bounding with respect to initial cesium breakthrough and transition zone length, but could overpredict cesium capacity when extrapolated to large-scale column operations.