Purification of wet process phosphoric acid by decreasing iron and uranium using white silica sand

Natural white silica sand as an adsorbent has been developed to reduce the concentration of iron and uranium ions as inorganic impurities in crude Egyptian phosphoric acid. Several parameters such as adsorbate concentration, adsorbent dose, volume to weight ratio and temperature, were investigated. Equilibrium isotherm studies were used to evaluate the maximum sorption capacity of adsorbent. Thermodynamic parameters showed the exothermic nature of the process and the negative entropy reflects the affinity of the adsorbent material towards each metal ion.