Effects of pH and uranium concentration on the removal of uranium from drinking water by ion exchange

Effects of pH in the range of 5 to 8 and uranium concentration in the range of 0.02 mg/l to 25 mg/l on the removal of uranium with a strong base anion exchange resin (SBA) and a chelating aminophosphonate resin were studied. The results of the batch and column mode experiments clearly showed that th e aminophosphonate resin was an efficient exchanger for the removal of uran ium at pH values close to 5 and the SEA resin at higher pH values. In the c olumn experiments, where altogether 2000 bed volumes of drinking water simu lant, were processed with these exchangers, the uptake of uranium was as hi gh as 99.8% by the aminophosphonate resin at pH 5 and 99.7 % by the SEA res in at pH 8.