Development of hybrid resin to reduce silica in borated water

Abstract

Amberlite IRN-78 resin was incorporated with iron to make a hybrid resin for the removal of silica from the borated water of nuclear power plants. The hybrid resin contained 0.84 wt % iron compounds upon pyrolysis. In batch experiments carried out at room temperature, 1 g of the hybrid resin removed ∼60 μg silica from 1 ppm borated water in ∼120 min. The efficiency of the hybrid material increased with the resin quantity, decreased with silica concentration, and remained unchanged at different pH values. Freundlich and Temkin isothermal adsorption dominated the silica removal process and followed the pseudo-first-order and intra-particle diffusion mechanism simultaneously. The concentration of the leached iron remained appreciably under the safe limits of 200 μg/l during the experiments. This detailed study suggests the use of hybrid resin for the removal of silica from borated water streams and other similar systems.

Keywords

• Hybrid resin
• Water purification
• Adsorption
• Borated water
• Ion exchange
• Nuclear reactor coolant