PROPERTIES OF A SPECIFIC ION EXCHANGE RESIN
In the fall of 1992, a research project was undertaken by graduate student Brian Frey,
and two undergraduates, Joel Dudas and Saribel Estrada, assisted him. The project
was overseen by Dr. Nicholas Clesceri. At interest were some of the properties of a specific
ion exchanger. Specifically, the resin was composed of Purolite beads of the strong acid
cation variety. The test was conducted on a bench scale, so this was intended as an initial measure
of the potential of this ion exchanger before a lot of money was spent on a large-scale setup.
The resin's job was to remove manganese and calcium from otherwise clean freshwater, and
it's success at performing this task was measured based upon how hard the water was as
effluent from the process, and by how long the process could be run before reaching the
breakthrough point. The standardized EDTA titrimetric method was used to gauge the water
hardness. In addition, it was hoped to study the regenrative properties of the ion exchange resin
as well.
Unfortunately, many problems confronted the researchers, and only marginal results were obtained.
The results were presented to a class of environmental engineering students, and were also
compiled in a report given to Dr. Clesceri. For a copy of the results, contact Dr. Clesceri
for more information.
Last update: 12/14/94