Boron Removal and Recovery by Adsorbing Effect of Boron on Thermally Treated Dolomite in the Water Containing Boron Ion

Dolomite is a double salt mineral, which consists of CaCO3 and MgCO3 that have different decarbonation temperatures. A particular modification is observed on the surface of mineral and the specific surface increased when dolomite was thermally treated at certain temperature. This investigation was carried out aiming at searching possibility of application of dolomite thermally treated at various temperatures for removing and recovering boron from aqueous solution. The confirmed best affinity adsorbent of boron is the heated dolomite at 750°C for 30 minutes. A series of experiments for adsorbing, and desorbing boron from a concentrated solution indicated the effectiveness of the thermally treated dolomite in terms of the adsorption capacity, which is similar or higher than the conventionally used adsorbents, such as activated carbon and fly ash. Thus, the results of this investigation suggested the adsorbent can effectively adsorb boron from drinking water or waste water, enabling the recovery of boron as new resource material.