boron and aluminum-sulfate

One promising water management strategy during hydraulic fracturing is treatment and reuse of flowback/produced water. In particular, the saline flowback water contains many of the chemicals employed for fracking, which need to be removed before possible reuse as "frac water." This manuscript targets turbidity along with one of the additives; borate-based cross-linkers used to adjust the rheological characteristics of the frac-fluid. Alum and ferric chloride were evaluated as coagulants for clarification and boron removal from saline flowback water obtained from a well in the Eagle Ford shale. Extremely high dosages (> 9000 mg/L or 333 mM Al and 160 mM Fe) corresponding to Al/B and Fe/B mass ratios of ∼70 and molar ratios of ∼28 and 13 respectively were necessary to remove ∼80% boron. Hence, coagulation does not appear to be feasible for boron removal from high-strength waste streams. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed BO bonding on surfaces of freshly precipitated Al(OH)

Topics: Alum Compounds; Aluminum; Aluminum Hydroxide; Boron; Chlorides; Ferric Compounds; Hydraulic Fracking; Hydroxides; Iron; Nephelometry and Turbidimetry; Wastewater; Water; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Water Purification

Effluent treatment from flexographic printing was investigated by precipitation/coagulation and electrochemical oxidation over boron-doped diamond electrodes. Precipitation with 3 g/L of lime led to complete removal of effluent turbidity (initial value of about 410 NTU) but only about 20% chemical oxygen demand (COD) decrease (initial value of about 1,900 mg/L). Higher lime dosages (up to 15 g/L) had no effect on separation. On the other hand, coagulation with alum in the range 0.05-1 mM failed to enhance the extent of solids separation achieved by gravity settling alone (i.e. about 60%). Preliminary electrochemical oxidation experiments in the presence of sulphuric acid as supporting electrolyte showed that treatment performance (in terms of COD removal and decrease in sample absorbance at 300 nm) increased with increasing applied current. The latter was more efficiently utilized at shorter treatment times and lower currents with efficiency reaching 30%. Following lime precipitation, the effluent was electrochemically oxidized at alkaline conditions for 360 min yielding 64% absorbance reduction and 50% COD removal (this corresponds to 60% overall COD removal for the combined process). The rather low electrochemical treatment performance may be attributed to limestone deposition and fouling of electrodes and other electrochemical reactor components as evidenced by the gradual drop in conductivity/current throughout the operation.

Topics: Alum Compounds; Boron; Calcium Compounds; Chemical Precipitation; Diamond; Electrochemical Techniques; Industrial Waste; Ink; Oxides; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Water Pollutants, Chemical

This paper explores the use of electrocoagulation to remove boron from waste effluent in comparison with alum coagulation. In treating model test wastes, greater boron removals were achieved with electrocoagulation at low doses than conventional alum coagulation when reaction was undertaken for the same conditions (pH 8.5, and initial boron concentration was 500 mg/L). Al electrocoagulation can achieve good boron removal performance (68.3%) at a dose of 2.1 (as molar ratio of Al:B, and for current density of 62.1 A/m2), while alum coagulation can only achieve the maximum boron removal of 56% at a dose of 2.4. Also, Al electrocoagulation can remove 15-20% more boron than alum coagulation for the same dose compared in the treatment of both model test wastes and industry effluent. The estimation of running costs shows that to achieve 75% boron removal from industry waste effluent, i.e. removing 150 g of boron from 1 m3 of effluent, electrocoagulation was 6.2 times cheaper than alum coagulation. The economic advantage of electrocoagulation in the treatment of boron-containing waste effluent is thus significant.

Topics: Alum Compounds; Boron; Electrocoagulation; Electrodes; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Industrial Waste; Sewage; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Water Pollutants; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Water Pollution, Chemical; Water Purification