Selective sorption of uranium (IV) from hydrochloric acid media by agro-industrial byproducts

Abstract An investigation was conducted on different agro-industrial byproducts to evaluate their potentiality for selective sorption of U 4+ ion from hydrochloric acid media (4 M). All experiments were performed in batch mode at ambient temperature. Among the tested biomasses, rice bran was selected because of high sorption of U 4+ . The sorption capacity obtained from distribution isotherm indicated value of 42.9 mg g −1 for rice bran. Additionally, the sorption equilibrium was achieved in less than 5 min. With the increase in the amount of granular zinc, uranium uptake efficiency was improved from 14% to 98%. The sorption efficiencies of uranium by rice bran in the concentration range of 133–3333 mg L −1 were relatively constant (>91.5%) with RSD less than 1.5%. The selectivity coefficient value of rice bran for U 4+ ion was >621-fold and >5460-fold greater than Ln +3 ions and Zn 2+ ion respectively. The maximum desorption of uranium was observed in the first stage (>89.7%) with (NH 4 ) 2 CO 3 and (NH 4 ) 2 C 2 O 4 . The selected biosorbent has the potential to be applied on an industrial scale due to economic and operational benefits.