Review and assessment on the separation of cesium and strontium from the aqueous stream

• Published in: Desalination and water treatment 2022-03, Vol.251, p.43-56
• Main Authors: Kavitha, Edward, Prabhakar, Sivaraman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Cesium; Complexation ultrafiltration; Ion exchange; Membrane processes; Polymer enhanced ultrafiltration; Radionuclides; Size enhanced ultrafiltration; Strontium
• ISSN: 1944-3986; 1944-3986
• DOI: 10.5004/dwt.2022.28113

Wastewater containing radionuclides of cesium and strontium are considered to be more toxic contaminants. Radioactive wastes have become a great public concern due to the induced radioactivity, difficulty in the disposal, and also the long half-life period. These wastes can affect human health and also have become the biggest challenge for environmental safety. So, the safe management and disposal of radioactive wastes have received considerable attention worldwide. This review paper deals with the critical analysis of conventional separation technologies such as chemical precipitation, adsorption, ion exchange, solvent extraction, and membrane separation processes for the separation of cesium and strontium from wastewater. Also, emerging technologies in membrane separation processes were critically analysed for the separation of these contaminants from wastewater. This review attempts to examine the treatment methods for the effective removal of trace quantities of these contaminants in a huge volume of wastewater. In this study, the virtues as well as limitations of the technologies for the separation of cesium and strontium have been compared and critically analysed. This paper also validates the success of the hybrid technology in the ultrafiltration process known as size enhanced ultrafiltration (SEUF) for the separation of cesium and strontium from the aqueous stream by using biopolymers.