A submerged membrane-ion-exchange hybrid process for boron removal

The studies focused on evaluation of a sorption membrane hybrid process using N-methyl glucamine chelating resins for boron sorption and submerged microfiltration membrane for removal of resin-boron complexes. Hollow fiber polypropylene membranes with 0.4 mu m pores were used as filtration material. Boron sorption kinetics were determined for two kinds of resins: ground Diaion CRB02 (Mitsubishi) and Dowex XUS 43594.00 (Dow Chemical). The first resin sorbed boron much faster that the latter: the Diaion resin needed 5 min while the Dowex. resin took 30 min to decrease the boron concentration to half the initial concentration. For the tests carried out in the sorption-membrane system, it was shown that the process reached its steady-state condition after 1 h.