Performance Evaluation of Electrodialysis for Uranium Recovery from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

in the present study, the possibility of uranium recovery from aqueous solutions was investigated using electrodialysis process. Also, the effect of separation time, electrical potential difference, flow rate, acidity, uranium concentration, and concentration of electrodes wash solution were studied. The results showed that the electrodialysis process remained stable in less than 20 minutes. As the electrical potential difference rises from 5 to 20 V, the separation of uranium increased and then remained constant due to the hydrolysis phenomenon. Due to less resistance, the membrane module performance of the single-cell was more appropriate than the multi-cell module. In addition, the uranium separation was reduced by increasing the flow rate and the feed concentration, according to the reduction of residence time and increasing the concentration polarization phenomenon. Anothert result was that the increase of feed solution acidity reduced the uranium separation and increased the electric current, which can be justified by the competition between acid ions and uranium. By increasing the concentration of sodium nitrate in the electrodes wash solution from 0.01 to 0.25 M, the percentage of uranium separation increased. The results of this study showed that the recovery of the uranium from aqueous solutions using electrodialysis process is possible.

Keywords

• electrodialysis
• uranium
• membrane
• electrical potential difference