ABSTRACT
Water contaminated with uranium can be purified by ion exchangers that can be regenerated and reused. The study investigated how the mechanical and chemical properties of selected anion exchangers change under the simulated operational conditions. Batch and dynamic column experiments were carried out to estimate the change of total capacity, breakthrough capacity, volume of purified water, pressure drop across the column, and the regeneration efficiency. Observed changes include lowering of total capacity and increasing pressure drop because of the mechanical degradation of beads of anion exchangers. The latter was confirmed by the measurement of particle size distribution.
Nomenclature
BV | = | bed volume, unit |
c | = | concentration mol L–1 or g L–1 |
cb | = | breakthrough capacity eq L–1 or g L–1 |
c (in) | = | inlet concentration mol L–1 or g L–1 |
c (limit) | = | limit concentration mol L–1 or g L–1 |
c (out) | = | outlet concentration mol L–1 or g L–1 |
ct | = | total capacity eq L–1 |
dp | = | diameter of particles m |
hb | = | height of the bed m |
Δp | = | pressure drop Pa m–1 |
qv | = | flow rate L h–1 |
u0 | = | surface speed of the solution m s–1 |
Greek letters
ε | = | porosity of the bed |
η | = | dynamic viscosity of the solution Pa s–1 |
ρ | = | density of the solution kg m–1 |
Funding
Financial support from specific university research (MSMT No 20-SVV/2016).