Removal of Zirconium (Zr) from Aqueous Solution by Polymer Enhanced Ultrafiltration

Abstract

Although the world output of zirconium has been declining, increasing zirconium consumption cannot compete with this situation. For this reason, removal and recovery of zirconium become important. This work is focused on the removal of Zirconium (as ZrO22+) ions from an aqueous solution using polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) techniques with water-soluble Poly (sodium-p-styrene sulfonate, SSS) sorbent. The negatively charged sulfonic acid groups in the polymer interact with positively charged ZrO22+ cation thereby enabling the efficient removal of ZrO22+through ultrafiltration. The effect of polymer: zirconium mole ratio, initial solution pH, and the presence of interfering ions on the removal of zirconium was investigated. The obtained results demonstrated that ZrO22+ can be removed from the aqueous solution by the PEUF technique with more than 99% efficiency at pH ≥ 2 using polymer: Zr molar ratio of 5:1. The presence of interfering ions did not affect the percent removal of ZrO22+.

Polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration–electrodeionization hybrid system for the removal of boron

“…It is known that increasing the polymer dose increases the amount of available functional groups for boron sorption, enhancing the removal rate. [38][39][40][41] However, further increasing the polymer dose beyond the optimal value can lead to accumulation of the polymer at the solid-liquid interface membrane in the UF cell, resulting in the formation of a gel layer. This can limit the availability of functional groups, preventing any further increase in the removal rate.…”