Elimination of boron and lithium coexisting in geothermal water by adsorption-membrane filtration hybrid process

Abstract

Direct release of geothermal waters to the environment may cause some damages to some plants because they contain toxic species such as boron, arsenic, fluoride etc. along with valuable minerals including lithium. In this study, a hybrid process combining adsorption and membrane filtration was used to separate boron and lithium simultaneously from geothermal water. According to the results obtained, separation efficiencies for lithium and boron from geothermal water were 100% and 83% using boron selective ion exchange resin Dowex XUS-43594.00 and lithium selective λ-MnO2 adsorbent, respectively. The kinetic data of lithium and boron adsorption have been evaluated using pseudo-first order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models.