Predicting Water Activity in Electrolyte Solutions With the Cisternas-Lam Model

Abstract

Water activity is an important parameter needed to predict the solubility of hydrated salts in Hanford nuclear waste supernatants. A number of models available in the scientific literature predict water activity from electrolyte solution composition. The Cisternas-Lam model is one of those models and has several advantages for nuclear waste application. One advantage is that it has a single electrolyte specific parameter that is temperature independent. Thus, this parameter can be determined from very limited data and extrapolated widely. The Cisternas-Lam model has five coefficients that are used for all aqueous electrolytes. The present study aims to determine if there is a substantial improvement in making all six coefficients electrolyte specific. The Cisternas-Lam model was fit to data for six major electrolytes in Hanford nuclear waste supernatants. The model was first fit to all data to determine the five global coefficients, when they were held constant for all electrolytes it yielded a substantially better fit. Subsequently, the model was fit to each electrolyte dataset separately, where all six coefficients were allowed to be electrolyte specific. Treating all six coefficients as electrolyte specific did not make sufficient difference, given the complexity of applying the electrolyte specific parameters to multi-solute systems. Revised water specific parameters, optimized to the electrolytes relevant to Hanford waste, are also reported

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