Separation of Boron from Geothermal Water Using a Boron Selective Macroporous Weak Base Anion Exchange Resin

Abstract

In this study, batch and column mode tests were performed to evaluate the efficiency of boron removal from geothermal water containing 10-11 mg B/L using Lewatit MK 51 which is a macroporous weak base anion exchange resin with polyhydroxyl groups showing a very high selectivity and capacity for boron. The optimum resin amount for boron removal from geothermal water was determined as 4.0 g resin/L-geothermal water. It was found that the sorption kinetics was influenced by particle size of the resin and temperature. The stirring rate had almost no effect on kinetic performance of the resin. According to the results of column-mode study performed, breakthrough and total capacities of the resin were obtained as 2.75 and 4.98 mg/mL-resin, respectively.

Keywords:

• boron
• geothermal water
• ion exchange resin
• water treatment

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study was supported by the National Boron Research Institute, BOREN (Project Number 2008-G-0192). We thank to LANXESS Deutschland GmbH and OKOTEK for providing us the boron selective resin sample. We are also grateful to Izmir Geothermal Energy Co. for the support to provide with the geothermal samples.