Although boron is an essential micronutrient for some plants, animals and humans, the range between deficiency and excess is narrow. The effects of excess boron on plants includes the reduction of root cell division, retarded shoot and root growth, inhibition of photosynthesis, deposition of lignin and suberin and decrease in leaf chlorophyll. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests a safe maximum level of boron daily intake of 13 mg/d an excessive level of boron can be toxic to and can causes serious diseases. There are several methods applied for boron removal from aqueous solutions and seawater. Among these methods, ion exchange, which is the most extensively method. Ion-exchange and adsorption are widely used techniques to remove metals and other solutes from aqueous solutions. This includes the removal of boron from reverse osmosis (RO) permeate in the process of seawater desalination. The use of boron-selective ion exchange resins based on macroporous polystyrene matrices with the active group N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMG) seems to still have the highest importance for the elimination of boron. Kinetics of adsorption or IEX is in many cases strongly influenced by diffusion resistance in particles of adsorbent. This resistance can be decreased by using smaller particles. Sorbents can be used as very fine particles which results in increase of the surface area and the process rate, considerably. Hybrid adsorption membrane filtration has gained the interest lately as it can be used for the removal of very small quantities of harmful substances from water. This thesis deals used hybrid system on both lab and pilot scale where a pilot plant was designed for the removal of boron. Boron separation combines two phenomena: i) sorption with fine sorbent particles and ii) membrane separation of B-loaded macromolecules/particles. The hybrid system includes two separation loops. Loop 1: Binding of boron (B) on Amberlite IRA743 resin (S), which is subsequently followed by separation of this (BS) complex from the water by means of semi-permeable microfiltration membrane. Here, pure water (W) is the main product whereas the complex (BS) passes to the second stage of separation. The effects of different parameters on boron removal using Amberlite IRA743 resin were investigated in this thesis. These parameters are, resin particle size, solution pH, temperature, contact time, initial boron concentration, resin concentration and the existence of different salts and ions like NaCl, Na2SO4 and MgCl2. The removal increased with increasing pH, temperature, contact time and resin dosage while it decreased with increasing initial boron concentration and resin particle size. For the microfiltration stage, three Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with different pore size have been used in this thesis. The effects of operational parameters like membrane pore size, transmembrane pressure, resin concentration and pH on permeate flux for hybrid adsorption-microfiltration were studied. The permeate flux increased with increasing the transmembrane pressure and pH but it decreased with increasing the resin concentration. The regeneration of loaded resin with boron was investigated. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) at different concentrations have been used for the elution of boron from the saturated resin and then washing with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). There was an improvement in the boron removal after cycles of regeneration. The integrated adsorption-microfiltration was applied for boron removal from water and encouraging results were achieved.

"June 2004." / Bibliography: leaves 135-159. / xi, 159 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Studies the mechanism underlying the morphological responses of boron- tolerance in plants by observing root and shoot responses to varied levels of subsoil boron in 2 barley varieties and 3 weed species common to agricultural areas of South Australia. Hypothesises that 4 mechanisms of boron-tolerance exist: 1. a physical barrier at xylem loading that also, 2., may include an efflux system; 3. enhanced sugar levels in shoot and root and 4, maintaining or increasing root biomass in the upper soil depths where the concentrations of boron are not toxic. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Discipline of Soil and Land Systems, 2004

Bibliography: leaves 234-256. Genetic studies of tolerance of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var durum) to high concentrations of boron (B) were undertaken to identify genetic variation in response to B, the mode of gene action, number of genes and chromosomal locations of genes controlling tolerance. Results demonstrated that tolerance to B is under simple genetic control as observed in bread wheat. High levels of tolerance can be transferred into sensitive commercial varieties via backcrossing and selection can be performed during seedling growth at early generations.

Bibliography: leaves 234-256. / ix, 257 leaves, [12] leaves of plates : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Genetic studies of tolerance of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var durum) to high concentrations of boron (B) were undertaken to identify genetic variation in response to B, the mode of gene action, number of genes and chromosomal locations of genes controlling tolerance. Results demonstrated that tolerance to B is under simple genetic control as observed in bread wheat. High levels of tolerance can be transferred into sensitive commercial varieties via backcrossing and selection can be performed during seedling growth at early generations. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Plant Science, 1996