Recovery of boron from desalination brine through Amberlite IRA 743 resin

Boron has a high applied value from the past to now. It can be used in composite material, aerospace industry, semiconductor industry, and many other areas. Nonetheless, boron resources are only located in some countries, so it is strenuous to acquire. To obtain more boron and reach the goal of resources circulation, boron was recovered from the desalination brine through Amberlite IRA 743 resin in this study. Because extreme climate change makes people have insufficient freshwater, desalination technology has matured since the 20th century. Although it can cope with freshwater scarcity, the by-product, brine, is detrimental to the environment. The only merit of brine is that it is a concentrated solution, so the boron concentration in brine is higher than in some ores. This recovering system then uses the characteristics of brine to get boron. The research could be divided into three parts. First, the adsorption isotherm model was investigated, and the saturated adsorption capacity of boron through Amberlite IRA 743 resin was 74.34 mg/g and conformed to the Langmuir model. The second part surveyed the optimal parameters of boron adsorption through Amberlite IRA 743 resin. The results revealed that 18.9 mg/L of boron could be fully adsorbed from brine under pH 10, L/S ratio of 200, contacting period of 128 min, and temperature at 328 K. On the other hand, different agents would be tested to desorb the boron from the resin, and the boron product could be generated. In a nutshell, through this research, people can reduce the side effect of brine and circulate boron resources in an eco-friendly method.