Preliminary Study on the Regeneration of Spent Electro-decontamination Solution Using Phosphoric Acid and Oxalic Acid

In this study, different amount of (fe(0)) were dissolve into different strength of phosphoric ($H_3PO_4$) acid and the optimum solubility was observed at 0.89M Fe(0) into 4M of $H_3PO_4$ acid. Different concentration of oxalic acid was added to determine the optimum precipitated condition. The dissolution kinetics of Fe(0) into $H_3PO_4$ acid was investigated at $40-50^{\circ}C$. The optimum Fe-oxalate precipitate was dried and thermal decomposition using DSC-TG was conducted. Approximately 52 wt(%) of oxalic acid was removed at $300^{\circ}C$. Iron oxides such as magnetite and hematite that may be formed on the surface of nuclear waste were also dissolved into the $H_3PO_4$ acid and the optimum solubility for magnetite is 0.005M while that for hematite is 0.02M in 8M $H_3PO_4$ acid, respectively.