URANIUM REMOVAL FROM NITRATE SOLUTION BY CATION EXCHANGE RESIN (AMBERLITE IR 120), ADSORPTION AND KINETIC CHARACTERISTICS

Ebrahim Gawad

doi:10.21608/nssj.2019.30142

Abstract

The present work aims to study the adsorption behavior of uranium ions from nitrate solutions usingthe strong acid cation exchange Amberlite IR120 resin. Batch shaking sorption experiments are carriedout to evaluate the performance of the studied resin in the uranium adsorption. The adsorption parametersincluding contact time, pH, initial uranium concentration and temperature have been optimized. Thephysical parameters including the adsorption kinetics, the isotherm models and the thermodynamic datahave also been determined to describe the nature of the uranium adsorption by the investigated resin.The modellated data has been found to agree with both the exothermic pseudo first order reaction and theLangmuir isotherm. The applied procedure was used for uranium ions removal from scrub and raffinateliquors.

Highlights

Solid-liquid extraction of uranium from its resources has proved to be more advantageous in view of the total insolubility of the applied solid in the aqueous phase, its low rate of physical degradation besides its high sorption capacity as well as its good flexibility and kinetic properties (Technical Reports Series No 359, 1993, and Donat et al, 2009)
Many researches have reported the application of several anion exchange resins upon the sulfate leach liquors such as Amberlite IRA-400 (Guettaf et al, 2009, and Khawassek 2014), Amberlite IRA-402 (Abdel Aal 2014), AMn resin (Mirjial 2007), Amberlite IRA-425 (Abd El-Ghany et al, 1994), DowexIX8 (Barnes et al, 1974), Ambersep 920U Cl, and Amberlite IR-118H (Cheira 2014, Liberti et al, 1983, and Kilislioglu et al, 2003) for uranium recovery from its solutions
A commercial sorbent Amberlite IR120 (AIR) resin was tested for uranium adsorption

Summary

Introduction

Solid-liquid extraction of uranium from its resources has proved to be more advantageous in view of the total insolubility of the applied solid in the aqueous phase, its low rate of physical degradation besides its high sorption capacity as well as its good flexibility and kinetic properties (Technical Reports Series No 359, 1993, and Donat et al, 2009). In this respect, ion exchange methods are widely used for the hydrometallurgical recovery of uranium from acidic leached mineral ore bodies (Merritt et al, 1971). Sadeek et al was used amine functionalized glycidyl methacrylate to extract uranium species in the nitrate media

Methods

Results

Conclusion