Removal and recovery of boron from geothermal wastewater by selective ion-exchange resins — II. Field tests Original Research Article

Column-mode removal of boron from geothermal wastewaters of the Kizildere Geothermal Power Station, Denizli, was performed using Diaion CRB 02 N-glucamine-type chelating resins. The resin was tested for 10 sorption-washing-elution-washing-regeneration-washing cycles in the geothermal field. The boron on the resin was eluted with 5% H2SO4 solution and the resin was regenerated with 4% NaOH solution prior to sorption of the following cycle. A certain decrease was observed in the break-through capacity of the resin after the first cycle. The decrease in resin capacity between cycles 2 and 7 was small, and it reached a plateau between cycles 7–10. A column-mode study was performed for the recovery ofboron from acidic eluates. For this, a weak base ion-exchange resin, Diaion WA 30, was used for separating boron from H2SO4 solutions collected in the field.