The paper presents results of research on cobalt and nickel ions removal from monocomponent solutions
using Purolite ion exchange resins. It has been shown that C 160 ion exchange resin has the best
sorption properties for both ions (Qe – 72.5 mg Co/g and 88.2 mg Ni/g). Regeneration process of this
ion exchanger has high efficiency, achieving about 93% for cobalt ions and about 84% in case of nickel
ions. It has been shown that the use of ion exchange method with suitable ion exchange resins guarantees
effective removal of cobalt and nickel ions from solutions with very high concentrations corresponding
to contents of these metals in industrial wastewaters (e.g. galvanic). In case of C 160 ion exchange resin,
after the sorption process is carried out in one 50 minute cycle, the cobalt concentration decreased from
about 30 000 mg/L to about 9 500 mg/L (approx. 68%), whereas nickel concentration reached about
6 300 mg/L (approx. 79%). Studied chelating resins don’t have such high sorption capacities. In their
case, it is required to convert cobalt and nickel ions into complex forms. The kinetics of studied processes
were described by pseudo-second order equations.