Boron removal from natural and wastewaters using combined sorption/ membrane process

Abstract

Potential features of membrane methods (electrodialysis and reverse osmosis) as concerns separation and concentration of the boron-containing solutions and development of the so-called green technology to purify natural waters and wastewaters from the boron compounds have been investigated. Application of these membrane methods has been demonstrated to give a way to solve the problem of regenerating solutions generated in the water purification process from the boron compound through use of the boron-selective sorbents of a N-methylglucamine type, viz. Amberlite IRA-743, Purolite S-108, and Diaion CRB 02. As a result, a danger of the secondary contamination of the environment by the boron-containing regenerating solutions is largely averted, consumption of the regenerating acid is reduced (because of its reuse), and there appears an opportunity to utilize the boron compounds as useful products in an economically proper way. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.