Adsorptive Recovery of Uranium from Nuclear Fuel Industrial Wastewater by Titanium Loaded Collagen Fiber

Abstract Effective recovery of UO 2+ 2 from wastewater is essential for nuclear fuel industry and related industries. In this study, a novel adsorbent was prepared by loading titanium (Ti 4+ ) onto collagen fiber (TICF), and its physical and chemical properties as well as adsorption to UO 2+ 2 in nuclear fuel industrial wastewater were investigated. It is found that TICF can effectively recover UO 2+ 2 from the wastewater with excellent adsorption capacity. The adsorption capacity is 0.62 mmol·g −1 at 303 K and pH 5.0 when the initial concentration of UO 2+ 2 is 1.50 mmol·L −1 . The adsorption isotherms can be described by the Langmuir equation and the adsorption capacity increases with temperature. The effect of co-existed F − on the adsorption capacity for UO 2+ 2 is significant, which can be eliminated by adding aluminum ions as complexing agent, while the other co-existed ions in the solutions, including HCO − 3 , Cl − , NO − 3 , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Cu 2+ , have little effect on the adsorption capacity for UO 2+ 2 . The saturated TICF after UO 2+ 2 adsorption can be regenerated by using 0.2 mol·L −1 nitrate (HNO 3 ) as desorption agent, and the TICF can be reused at least three times. Thus the TICF is a new and effective adsorbent for the recovery of UO 2+ 2 from the wastewater.