Uranium recovery from UCF liquid waste by nanoporous MCM-41: breakthrough capacity and elution behavior studies Seyyed Mahmoud Mousavi • Hamed Tavakoli • Mohammad Samadfam • Fatemeh Semnani • Zahra Asadi • Hamid Sepehrian Received: 3 January 2012 / Accepted: 16 May 2012 / Published online: 8 June 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract Adsorption and recovery of uranium by nanoporous MCM-41 from aqueous solutions (synthetic solution and uranium conversion facility liquid waste) were investigated by use of a fixed-bed column (1.2 cm diameter and 3.0 cm height). Adsorption was carried out at flow rates 0.2 and 0.5 mL min -1 , which correspond to retention times of 10 and 6 min. The maximum breakthrough capacity for uranium ions was achieved by use of nanoporous MCM-41 at the optimum pH of 3.6 and flow rate 0.2 mL min -1 (61.95 lgg -1 ). The Thomas and Yan models were applied to the experimental data, by use of linear regression, to determine the characteristics of the column for process design. The breakthrough curves calculated from the models were in good agreement with the experimental data. The elution behavior of uranium on nanoporous MCM-41 was studied with different eluents; the results showed that 0.1 M HCl is good eluent for uranium recovery. The regenerated column could be used in a multitude of adsorption–desorption cycles. Keywords Uranium recovery  UCF liquid waste  Nanoporous MCM-41  Breakthrough capacity Introduction Uranium is one of the most important elements in the nuclear industry, and has significant commercial use as a fuel for electricity generation [1]. It is always S. M. Mousavi  H. Tavakoli Faculty of Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Nour Branch, Nour, Iran M. Samadfam  F. Semnani  Z. Asadi Department of Energy Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran H. Sepehrian (&) Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, P. O. Box 11365/8486, Tehran, Iran e-mail: hsepehrian@yahoo.com 123 Res Chem Intermed (2013) 39:951–959 DOI 10.1007/s11164-012-0607-9