Boron removal from RO permeate of geothermal water by monodisperse poly(vinylbenzyl chloride-co-divinylbenzene) beads containing N-methyl-D-glucamine

WOS: 000353094300009Novel boron selective chelating resins were synthesized using monodisperse porous poly(VBC-co-DVB) beads by further functionalization with N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMDG) groups. The performance of the resins for boron removal from geothermal water and its reverse osmosis (RO) permeate has been studied using a batch sorption method. It was possible to remove about 93% of boron from geothermal water containing 11.0 mg B/L with 4 g/L of monodisperse functionalized polymer beads. The respective value for RO permeate of geothermal water with 4.8-5A mg B/L of concentration was 97% with the same amount of chelating resin. The sorption rate of boron was quite rapid. A sorption equilibrium was reached in 20 min for geothermal water and in 10 min for RO permeate. The kinetic data obtained were evaluated using classical kinetic models and diffusion/reaction models. It was concluded that monodisperse chelating resins obeyed pseudo-second order kinetic model. Also, the rate controlling step of boron sorption was mostly particle diffusion along with chemical reaction. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.National Boron Research Institute, BORENMinistry of Energy & Natural Resources - Turkey [2008-G-0192]; TUBITAKTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK)This work was supported financially by the National Boron Research Institute, BOREN (Project Number: 2008-G-0192). We are grateful also to TUBITAK for the post-doc fellowship to Dr. S. Samatya. We thank Prof. Dr. A. Ozdural for the kind permission to use ICP-MS in his laboratory for boron analyses