Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/11147/4761
Title: A new methodology for removal of boron from water by coal and fly ash
Authors: Polat, Hürriyet
Vengosh, Avner
Pankratov, Irena
Polat, Mehmet
Keywords: Desalination
Boron
Coal
Fly ash
Mg-oxide
Reverse osmosis
Seawater
Water treatment
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd.
Source: Polat, H., Vengosh, A., Pankratov, I., and Polat, M. (2004). A new methodology for removal of boron from water by coal and fly ash. Desalination, 164(2), 173-188. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(04)00176-6
Abstract: High levels of boron concentrations in water present a serious problem for domestic and agriculture utilizations. The recent EU drinking water directive defines an upper limit of 1 mgB/I. In addition, most crops are sensitive to boron levels >0.75 mg/1 in irrigation water. The boron problem is magnified by the partial (∼60%) removal of boron in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination due to the poor ionization of boric acid and the accumulation of boron in domestic sewage effluents. Moreover, high levels of boron are found in regional groundwater in some Mediterranean countries, which requires special treatment in order to meet the EU drinking water regulations. Previous attempts to remove boron employed boron-specific ion-exchange resin and several cycles of RO desalination under high pH conditions. Here, we present an alternative methodology for boron removal by using coal and fly ash as adsorbents. We conducted various column and batch experiments that explored the efficiency of boron removal from seawater and desalinated seawater using several types of coal and fly ash materials under controlled conditions (pH, liquid/solid ratio, time of reaction, pre-treatment, regeneration). We examined the effect of these factors on the boron removal capacity and the overall chemical composition of the residual seawater. The results show that the selected coal and fly ash materials are very effective in removing boron such that the rejection ratio of boron can reach 95% of the initial boron content under certain optimal conditions (e.g., pH = 9, L/S = 1/10, reaction time > 6 h). Our experiments demonstrated that use of glycerin enables regeneration of boron uptake into coal, but the boron uptake capacity of fly ash reduces after several cycles of treatment-reaction. The boron removal is associated with Mg depletion and Ca enrichment in the residual seawater and conversely with relative Mg enrichment and Ca depletion in the residual fly ash. We propose that the reaction of Ca-rich fly ash with Mg-rich seawater causes co-precipitation of magnesium hydroxide in which boron is co-precipitated. The new methodology might provide an alternative technique for boron removal in areas where coal and fly ash are abundant.
URI: http://doi.org/10.1016/S0011-9164(04)00176-6
http://hdl.handle.net/11147/4761
ISSN: 0011-9164
0011-9164
Appears in Collections:Chemical Engineering / Kimya Mühendisliği
Chemistry / Kimya
Scopus İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / Scopus Indexed Publications Collection
WoS İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / WoS Indexed Publications Collection

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
4761.pdfMakale3.05 MBAdobe PDFThumbnail
View/Open
Show full item record



CORE Recommender

SCOPUSTM   
Citations

126
checked on Mar 22, 2024

WEB OF SCIENCETM
Citations

118
checked on Mar 27, 2024

Page view(s)

294
checked on Mar 25, 2024

Download(s)

528
checked on Mar 25, 2024

Google ScholarTM

Check




Altmetric


Items in GCRIS Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.