This paper shows that natural materials such as barks can successfully replace synthetic resins for industrial purposes. Evaluated in batch conditions, biosorption of uranium on suitably prepared Douglas fir barks took place in less than 10 min and appeared to be optimum at pH>4. The biosorption process of uranium (uranyl form UO 2 2+ ) was characterized in the optimal physico-chemical conditions and could be mathematically modeled as a Langmuir isotherm. With a maximum uranium specific uptake q max value of 1.16 meq.g -1 (138 mgU.g -1 ) it was found that the sorption capability of Douglas fir barks was at least five times higher for uranium than for other heavy metals such as lead. Adsorption of uranium contained in water leached from a former uranium mine was then monitored over a one-month period in a laboratory-scale chromatography column. The fixation capacity remained fairly constant throughout the whole testing period. Water radioactivity decreased from 1500 mBq. L
Experiments performed under chemical and flow conditions representative of pressurized water reactors (PWR) primary fluid purification by ion exchange resins (Amberlite IRN9882) are modeled with the OPTIPUR code, considering 1D reactive transport in the mixed-bed column with convective/dispersive transport between beads and electro-diffusive transport within the boundary film around the beads. The effectiveness of the purification in these dilute conditions is highly related to film mass transfer restrictions, which are accounted for by adjustment of a common mass transfer coefficient (MTC) on the experimental initial leakage or modeling of species diffusion through the bead film by the Nernst-Planck equation. A detailed analysis of the modeling against experimental data shows that the Nernst-Planck approach with no adjustable parameters performs as well as, or better, than the MTC approach, particularly to simulate the chromatographic elution of silver by nickel and the subsequent enrichment of the solution in the former metal.
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