Particle-scale mass transfer characteristics of composite microspheres for cesium ion adsorption in nuclear wastewater within microchannel adsorbers

Dai Hongjing; Bo Ziyi; Wang Sifang; Tao Shengyang; Ma Xuehu

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Particle-scale mass transfer characteristics of composite microspheres for cesium ion adsorption in nuclear wastewater within microchannel adsorbers

Updated：2026-03-13

- Particle-scale mass transfer characteristics of composite microspheres for cesium ion adsorption in nuclear wastewater within microchannel adsorbers
- Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 89, Issue 1, Pages: 70-82(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  Liaoning Key Laboratory of Clean Utilization of Chemical Resources, Department of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
  CFHI Dalian Engineering & Technology Co., Ltd., Dalian 116020, China
- Author bio：
  
  Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: wang.sifang@cfhi.com(S. Wang)
  xuehuma@dlut.edu.cn(X. Ma).
- Funds：
- DOI：
  CLC：
- Received：21 June 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-09-10，
  
  Accepted：12 September 2025，
  
  Online First：26 September 2025，
  
  Published：2026-01
- Accepted：
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Dai Hongjing, Bo Ziyi, Wang Sifang, et al. Particle-scale mass transfer characteristics of composite microspheres for cesium ion adsorption in nuclear wastewater within microchannel adsorbers[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 89(1): 70-82.
DOI：

Dai Hongjing, Bo Ziyi, Wang Sifang, et al. Particle-scale mass transfer characteristics of composite microspheres for cesium ion adsorption in nuclear wastewater within microchannel adsorbers[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 89(1): 70-82. DOI：

摘要

Abstract

To efficiently remove radioactive nuclides f

rom nuclear industry wastewater and minimize the generation of radioactive secondary waste

this study proposes the concept of a magnetically controlled microchannel adsorber based on magnetic adsorbents. A novel protocol for achieving high adsorption performance in microchannel adsorbers with periodically distributed particles is developed using the particle-resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method

which addresses the limitations of traditional porous media flow models. To align simulation results more closely with practical scenarios

a typical high-efficiency magnetic adsorbent

magnetic sodium alginate/cobalt-based Prussian blue (MSA/PB-Co)

was synthesized. The M-SA/PB-Co microspheres exhibit a uniform size distribution (300—600 μm)

and their Cs

adsorption follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with a Langmuir saturated adsorption capacity of 124.84 mg·g

- 1

. The performance parameters of M-SA/PB-Co

obtained from characterization and adsorption experiments

were integrated into CFD simulations. CFD results indicate that as the flow velocity increases

the flow field gradually transitions with vortices expanding in scale and streamline bifurcation points shifting rearward. The Cs

concentration decreases progressively along the flow direction

with a more pronounced reduction in the vortex regions downstream of particles. The characteristic velocity and characteristic concentration of specific regions surrounding the particles were extracted based on boundary layer distribution. The amount of concentration reduction of Cs

through particle is positively correlated with the characteristic concentration and negatively correlated with the characteristic velocity. The number of microspheres required in the microchannel adsorber was optimized using the response surface method. Compared with industrial fixed-bed adsorbers

microchannel adsorbers exhibit 8—10 times higher processing capacity

demonstrating significant industrial application potential.

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