Uranium(VI) recovery from acidic leach liquor by Ambersep 920U SO4 resin: Kinetic, equilibrium and thermodynamic studies

• Main Authors: Mohamed F. Cheira, Bahig M. Atia, Mohamed N. Kouraim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2017-10-01
• Series: Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences
• Subjects: Ambersep 920U SO4; Anion exchange resin; Uranium; Adsorption; Recovery
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1687850717300985

The kinetic, equilibrium and thermodynamic characteristics of U(VI) recovery by the strong base anion exchange resin Ambersep 920U SO4 from Gabal Gattar sulfate leach liquor have been determined. Batch sorption experiments are performed to evaluate the optimum conditions at pH2, 200 mg resin dose for 120 min contact time at room temperature. The maximum sorption capacity reaches to 58 mg/g at 298 K. The kinetics data are well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model at different uranium concentrations. The experimental results obtained at various temperatures showed that the adsorption pattern on the studied resin has followed Langmuir isotherm model. The evaluation of thermodynamic parameters (free energy change ΔG, enthalpy change ΔS, entropy change ΔH, activation energy Ea and sticking probability S*) indicate that the adsorption process is spontaneous in nature, endothermic, randomness and chemisorptions. Uranium(VI) can be completely desorbed from the loaded resin using 0.5 M HNO3 solution. Finally, the optimized factors have been carried out for uranium(VI) recovery from G. Gattar leach liquor.