Applications of Porous Resin Sorbents in Industrial Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery

Abstract

Porous resins have been used to sorb organic residues in industrial wastewaters for over four decades. A survey of literature revealed that these resins have surface areas up to 1500 m2/g, and may be tailor made to selectively sorb certain groups of organic chemicals. Resins may be regenerated, upon saturation, on site at ambient temperature by solvent elution, or by other means such as pH adjustment, microwave, or steam. The organic chemicals are desorbed from the resin, during regeneration, and may be recovered for reuse. This paper reviews literature related to the applications of these porous resin sorbents for the removal and recovery of organic chemicals from wastewater, their syntheses and physicochemical properties, as well as their sorption characteristics and mechanisms. Sorption data scattered in literature are compiled, methods of resin regeneration and recovery of organic chemicals for reuse are discussed, and case studies of full-scale industrial applications in both the United States and China are presented.