A semi-empirical model for adsorption of magnesium ion from magnesium impurity-containing saturated boric acid solutions on Amberlite IR-120 resin

In this study, the use of Amberlite IR-120, strong acidic cation exchange resin, was investigated to remove magnesium impurity from saturated boric acid solutions. The magnesium impurity caused by magnesium compounds in raw colemanite is a very important problem, which has to be solved by the industry. The experiments were carried out in a batch reactor. Adsorption kinetics of magnesium was studied as a function of resin/solution ratio (g/100 mL), initial solution pH and temperature (K). The obtained kinetic data were employed with pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order models. It was determined that the pseudo-second order model was the best fitting kinetic model. Furthermore, a semi empirical model was developed to predict operational conditions of the batch process in the following form; t/ sub(q1)=313.737x[H] super(0.0055)x(S/L) super(0.9228)xexp(-5209.856/RT)x t super(1.0129).