Boron removal from drinking water with a boron selective resin: is the treatment really selective?

Drinking water and even mineral water may contain boron until a few ppm and WHO has recommended a limit of 0.3 mg boron l−1. The treatment by the resin Amberlite IRA743 seems to be the most convenient. Water deboronation with this resin has been revisited through laboratory column experiments, especially for low boron concentrations. Given that the resin bears weakly basic anion exchange groups, the specificity of the treatment is not obvious. For mineral waters, it is important that the ionic composition remains constant. It is shown here that anion exchange reactions occur but may be neglected when the water has sufficient ionic strength and/or being gasified with carbon dioxide. Thus, the treatment with Amberlite IRA743 is convenient, but it requires to be authorized in France and the minimization of regeneration solutions has still to be improved.