This review paper by Polish researchers – in a Special Issue of Desalination on Removal of Boron from Seawater, Geothermal Water and Wastewater – pulls together knowledge on boron. This covers its properties, sources, presence in the environment, effects on plants and animals, and removal methods.
The intention of this review is to update the information on methods for boron removal. It is shown that currently used recovery technologies should be developed further, and there is still room for new separation methods.
It seems that the introduction of new sorption materials – as well as the use of a sorption–membrane filtration hybrid, combining sorption on fine B-sensitive sorbent with membrane separation – can offer promising features for a technological approach.
One of the most effective methods is the use of chelating resins with ligands containing –OH groups in the ‘cis’ position, capable of forming complexes with borates. Grafting polymer chains that bear such groups into brush-like structures can offer sorbents with fast B uptake.
The search for cheap separation methods has led to the development of hybrid systems. In such systems fine sorbent bodies, after complexing with boron, are removed from the system by means of filtration membranes.
To implement such process on a larger scale, it is necessary to prepare monodisperse sorbents whose beads are resistant to abrasion and cracking. Membrane emulsification can be useful in the production of such structures.
