Liquid effluent treatment using inorganic absorbers

The use of inorganic absorbers for the removal of a number of specified elements from aqueous waste streams has been studied. A worldwide review of the literature on the subject has been carried out and a number of processes identified at various stages of development, from the experimental to the fully developed industrial scale. The processes have been reduced to two major types; precipitation techniques, both seeded and unseeded and ion exchange. The chemical aspects of the use of such materials have been examined with regard to the processes and the nuclides in question. A comparative costing exercise has been carried out on typical processes examining plant, process and disposal costs, and has shown that one of the over-riding factors in deciding the economics of precipitation processes is the subsequent dewatering stage; because of the relatively low amounts of waste produced ion-exchange processes involving the use of columns have been found to have the lowest overall costs. Finally, a number of gaps in the present state of knowledge in this field have been identified and a number of recommendations are made. (author)