Uranium Partitioning During Water Treatment Processes

Some of non-renewable water resources such as deep groundwater aquifers were explored extensively for the use as drinking water. Water treatment plants (WTPs) were established to fulfill the standards of drinking water quality. The study of the chemical behavior of uranium (U) in groundwater treatment process is the main aim of this work that will shed more light on U removal efficiency during water treatment processes. Samples represent various treatment processes such as sand filtration and reverse osmosis were collected. Uranium and other elements (e.g. Ba, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na and Sr) concentrations were measured using ICP-MS that shows a wide range of variation. In addition, some physicochemical parameters such as pH, electric conductivity-EC, major cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+) and major anions (CO32-, HCO3-, Cl- and SO4 (2-)) were measured. The removal efficiency of U was about 99% by reverse osmosis (RO) process that leads to increasing the U concentration (293%) in RO reject and consequently in evaporation bond. The concentration of U and other toxic elements in evaporation bond's water could be a serious potential source of environmental contamination due to their continuous increase with water volume reduction.