Treatment of Uranium Effluent by Reverse Osmosis Membrane

Abstract

Membrane separation processes play a very important role in wastewater treatment. Uranium conversion process effluent which contains many toxic, corrosive and radioactive compounds, needs further treatment and recovery of uranium. In this research the reverse osmosis membrane separation process was applied to treat uranium conversion process effluent. The uranium content was lowered to less than 1mg/l, the rejection of uranium was 99.5% or higher, and the overall decontamination factor was higher than 100. After repeated treatment in a batch-type concentration process of the uranium conversion process effluent, the uranium content in the concentrated solution was higher than 2.1 g/l, and the volume was reduced to 30% of its original value. These results show that uranium conversion process effluent can be successfully treated to meet the standards of waste disposal. Because of the variations in the composition, chemical properties and pH value of uranium conversion process effluent, it is necessary to study the effect of these parameters on the membrane separation process. The results show that the most important factor is the feed pH value. The effect of pressure was also important. It is shown that proper control of these three factors is essential for successful treatment of uranium conversion process effluent.