Review of the adsorbent for recovery of uranium from seawater

Reviewing the adsorbents for the uranium recovery from seawater, the following matters are described: essentials for adsorbent development, the trends in the development of adsorbents as viewed from patents, and the present situation of the development. Among the inorganic compound adsorbents, hydrous titanium oxide or its composite is the most promising. For the practical utilization, however, a number of problems must be solved, including the availability of the material. Accordingly, the development of other adsorbent materials is necessary. Then, as for natural high polymer adsorbents, the problems are uranium uptake from seawater and the supply of the materials. Therefore, basic studies are required on new functional groups for uranium adsorption. In synthetic high polymer adsorbents, though their research is only in initial stage, those with an amidoxime group exhibit the best uranium adsorption among all adsorbents. (Mori, K.)