Advantage of fast reacting adsorbents like humic acids for the recovery of uranium from seawater

This report is divided into two sections. The first part comprises experimental data of humic acid adsorbers; whereas, the second concerns design parameter and costs of a recovery plant using fast reacting adsorbents. Summarizing the experimental results, hydrogen-loaded humic acids on carriers show an exceptionally fast kinetics of uranium fixation in seawater which is practically temperature independent. This fast adsorption performance may be maintained in a technical recovery process if care is taken to minimize slow diffraction controlled steps preceding the uranium fixation reaction. When humic acid was used instead of titanium hydroxide in the recovery plant, there was a decrease of investment and production costs of about 50%. However, there was a higher percentage of energy costs, i.e., electric power consumption and investments for pumps