A review of remediation technologies for uranium-contaminated water
Ighalo J.O. Chen Z. Ohoro C.R. Oniye M. Igwegbe C.A. Elimhingbovo I. Khongthaw B. Dulta K. Yap P.-S. Anastopoulos I.
March 2024Elsevier Ltd
Chemosphere
2024#352
Uranium is a naturally existing radioactive element present in the Earths crust. It exhibits lithophilic characteristics, indicating its tendency to be located near the surface of the Earth and tightly bound to oxygen. It is ecotoxic, hence the need for its removal from the aqueous environment. This paper focuses on the variety of water treatment processes for the removal of uranium from water and this includes physical (membrane separation, adsorption and electrocoagulation), chemical (ion exchange, photocatalysis and persulfate reduction), and biological (bio-reduction and biosorption) approaches. It was observed that membrane filtration and ion exchange are the most popular and promising processes for this application. Membrane processes have high throughput but with the challenge of high power requirements and fouling. Besides high pH sensitivity, ion exchange does not have any major challenges related to its application. Several other unique observations were derived from this review. Chitosan/Chlorella pyrenoidosa composite adsorbent bearing phosphate ligand, hydroxyapatite aerogel and MXene/graphene oxide composite has shown super-adsorbent performance (>1000 mg/g uptake capacity) for uranium. Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes and electrocoagulation have been observed not to go below 97% uranium removal/conversion efficiency for most cases reported in the literature. Heat persulfate reduction has been explored quite recently and shown to achieve as high as 86% uranium reduction efficiency. We anticipate that future studies would explore hybrid processes (which are any combinations of multiple conventional techniques) to solve various aspects of the process design and performance challenges.
Environmental protection , Radionuclides , Separation processes , Uranium , Water treatment
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Department of Chemical Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, P. M. B. 5025, Awka, Nigeria
Tim Taylor Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, 66506, KS, United States
Department of Civil Engineering, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, 215123, China
Water Research Group, Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, 11 Hoffman St, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa
Department of Chemical and Material Science, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Department of Applied Bioeconomy, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, 51-630, Poland
Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Faculty of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology, Shoolini University, Himachal Pradesh, Solan, 173229, India
Department of Food Technology, School of Applied and Life Sciences, Uttaranchal University, Uttarakhand, Dehradun, 248007, India
Department of Agriculture, University of Ioannina, UoI Kostaki Campus, Arta, 47100, Greece
Department of Chemical Engineering
Tim Taylor Department of Chemical Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Water Research Group
Department of Chemical and Material Science
Department of Applied Bioeconomy
Department of Animal and Environmental Biology
Faculty of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology
Department of Food Technology
Department of Agriculture
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