Letter 20838

Unable to meet Boron discharge level  

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Boron discharge std, 4 mg/ml Std B is too strict. Malaysian std B for boron is 4 mg/ml. My waste water can only come down to 30 mg/ml. I have tried many tricks and waste water consultant however, non of it is successful. Can you advise if the 4 mg/ml is an impossible standard, that it is impossible to reach? What is the Boron discharge level for US, UK or EU?

Thank you,

Tan, SF
- Penang, Malaysia

There are very few ways to remove boron from water to low concentrations. If you cannot find an alternative chemistry that does not contain boron,one way to remove boron is by a selective ion exchange resin with n-glucamine functional groups. This resin can remove boron to less than 1 mg/l. However, the resin is very expensive and has a low capacity before it becomes exhausted and must be regenerated.

In most cases, it is preferable to go to the source of the boron, and put in some kind of closed-loop recycling system. Even if there is a waste from this system, it will be a small volume with a high concentration, so even if you can only treat it down to 30 mg/l, there may be enough other dilution water to allow you to meet the 4 mg/l limit.

There are no USEPA limits for boron, but there are State and local limits in many parts of the country. Some of these are as low as 1 mg/l.

Good luck in finding a solution to your problem.

Lyle Kirman
water treatment systems - Cleveland, Ohio

Can you help us to find the way about 1000 mg/l b as boric acid in the waste water?

And the limit is 1 mg/l only.

We can even invite your engineer come here and teach everything.

We are an environmental engineering company in Taiwan.

Best wish

Wang Chuan Hsin
- Taiwan

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