Boron adsorption from aqueous solutions through column study: desorption mechanisms, regeneration techniques, and kinetic insights

Recovering boron from aqueous solutions presents a significant opportunity for enhancing sustainable resource management and reducing costs within the oil and gas industry. This research focuses on evaluating newly synthesized adsorbents. Specifically, it investigates the boron adsorption and desorption in fixed bed columns of 25 cm in length and 2.5 cm in diameter, utilizing bed depths at 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 cm. Four different flow rates (2, 4, 6, and 8 mL/min) were used, all maintaining constant concentrations of 85 mg/L, which were determined as optimal through prior batch studies. In boron breakthrough, the maximum and minimum points ranged from (60,12) minutes to (280,100) minutes, respectively, across different experimental conditions. The maximum uptake (q_e) reaches 22.86 mg/g, and the minimum uptake was 5.85 mg/g with bed heights of 2.5 cm and 10 cm, respectively. The kinetic analysis revealed that the Thomas model provided a strong fit for boron extraction, having R² ratings between 0.9 and 0.95. The efficiency of boron desorption reached 75 %. Notably, boron extraction using Derived Boron Adsorbent)DBA( 160 mg under conditions of a 10 cm bed depth, 48 cm³ pore volume, and a flow rate of 6 mL/min. The research conclusions show how well DBA works to adsorb boron from aqueous solutions and show significant insights into the adsorption and desorption process. Therefore, DBA was selected as the preferred method for boron adsorption because of its exceptional ability to absorb boron efficiently and its high sorption capacity.