Adsorptive Recovery of Uranium from Nuclear Fuel Industrial Wastewater by Titanium Loaded Collagen Fiber

Effective recovery of UO2+2 from wastewater is essential for nuclear fuel industry and related industries. In this study, a novel adsorbent was prepared by loading titanium (Ti4+) onto collagen fiber (TICF), and its physical and chemical properties as well as adsorption to UO2+2 in nuclear fuel industrial wastewater were investigated. It is found that TICF can effectively recover UO2+2 from the wastewater with excellent adsorption capacity. The adsorption capacity is 0.62 mmol·g−1 at 303 K and pH 5.0 when the initial concentration of UO2+2 is 1.50 mmol·L−1. The adsorption isotherms can be described by the Langmuir equation and the adsorption capacity increases with temperature. The effect of co-existed F− on the adsorption capacity for UO2+2 is significant, which can be eliminated by adding aluminum ions as complexing agent, while the other co-existed ions in the solutions, including HCO−3, Cl−, NO−3, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Cu2+, have little effect on the adsorption capacity for UO2+2. The saturated TICF after UO2+2 adsorption can be regenerated by using 0.2 mol·L−1 nitrate (HNO3) as desorption agent, and the TICF can be reused at least three times. Thus the TICF is a new and effective adsorbent for the recovery of UO2+2 from the wastewater.