At present, industrial development is increasing pollution of soils, air and natural waters. These

pollutants have a negative effect on the health and life of living organisms. Metals which interfere with

the natural biological balance and inhibit self-cleaning processes in water bodies have particularly

toxic effects. Cobalt, which gets into the environment from industrial sewage from electrochemical

plants and the metallurgical industry, also belong to this group. This is also relatively rare and precious

element, so it is important to look for additional sources of its recovery. Chemical and physicochemical

methods such as: precipitation, extraction, membrane processes – nanofiltration, reverse

osmosis, sorption and ion exchange are used to recover cobalt. The choice of method depends on: the

kind and composition of wastewaters as well as on form and concentration of the pollutants.

Ion exchange resins produced by Purolite which were used to remove cobalt ions from solutions

with concentrations corresponding to its contents in galvanic wastewater was the subject of the study.

It has been shown that the C 160 ion exchange resin has the best the sorption properties for Co2+ ions

(54.7 mg/g). In case of this ion exchange resin, after sorption process carried out in one 50 minute cycle,

cobalt concentration decreased from about 30 g/L to about 9 g/L. The values of the sorption capacity

do not depend on the method of introducing the solution into an ion exchange column (pouring or dropping).

E ach of the tested ion exchange resins is characterized by a high degree of cobalt concentration

after regeneration using mineral acids, which can be advantageous in selecting the recovery method for

this metal.