ABSTRACT
In municipal waste effluent treatment, ammonia removal by an inorganic cation exchanger is practiced in a few communities. However, cost is a major consideration by municipalities when it comes to applying new technologies. Some parts of the US, Southern California, for example, long faced with a deficit of good quality fresh water, have available a potential source in its once-used wastewater. An efficient, economical, and reliable demineralization process which can be adapted to the special problems encountered in wastewater treatment would eliminate one of the obstacles in the utilization of several million acre feet of wastewater being discharged annually to the oceans. Continuous countercurrent ion exchange has been successfully used for several pollution control applications. However, ion exchange also increases the total amount of solids in the regenerant waste streams. But for many applications and with the proper choice of regenerant chemicals, the concentrated waste stream can be recovered as a by-product.
