Letter 34850

How to remove boron from waste water [Taiwan] 

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I need to find a way to treat our waste water ,there is 1000 mg/l b as boric acid,and the limits is 1 mg/l only,any one can help us ?

WANG CHUAN HSIN
ENGINEERING CORP. - TAIWAN

It is difficult to remove boron from water. It is not significantly removed by conventional precipitation processes. There is a selective ion exchange resin that will remove boron to < 1 mg/L and concentrate the boron, but it has a low capacity and is expensive, and will still result in a waste solution that must be dealt with.

In situations like this, it is usually best to deal with the problem as close to the source as possible. Sometimes the best solution is to use a DI or an evaporative recycling system to recycle the water and to eliminate boron from the discharge. Like the selective ion exchange mentioned earlier, this may still result in a boron containing waste that must be hauled off-site for ultimate treatment and disposal.

Good luck in finding the best solution.

Lyle Kirman
water treatment systems - Cleveland, Ohio

We have significant results about boron removal from wastewater with ECP (Electrolytic-Catalytic Precipitation).
A way to solve it is to fit an ECP unit to you for testing or to do testing some samples to our partner in Scotland on a sample wastewater quantity (about 5 US Gallon).
Please send me other wastewater analysis and flow rate.

Regards,

Damian Dinu
- Constanta, Romania

Mr Kirman has given you sound advise, that the use of selective ion exchange for the removal of the boron. It does create a concentrate (and the loadings factors of the resins are low comparatively to other resins), however it is likely the only means by which you may achieve the discharge concentration desired. He also provides to you sound advice that you should probably look upstream for the sources to minimize the capital requirements, which are typically based on hydraulic flows as much or more than the concentration based criteria.

Boron does not convert to an oxide by means of electrocatayltic precipitation nor any other means of electrolytic oxidation. It is stable in solution. This is proven time and time again in the plating of nickel and other metals that rely on boric acid as a buffer. Please show us the data supporting this approach.

Tom Baker
wastewater treatment specialist - Warminster, PA

I need an help about removing of boron with activated carbon. in the literature there are some articles about it. however there is not any detailed information. how much of the boron can be removed by activated carbon?

ebru
GNS Treatment Tech. - Turkey

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