Natural inorganic exchangers such as zeolites, oxides and clay
minerals have wide applications especially in treatment of nuclear
wastes due to their resistance to decomposition in the presence of
ionizing radiation or at high temperatures. They are also characterized
by high selectivity towards certain ions therefore they may be
suitable for certain hydrometallurgic applications [5–7]. However,
waste water treatment technologies generally apply macroporous
ion exchangers [8] with the functional groups characterized by
chelating properties. The use of chelating resins allows for selective
removal of metal ions from waste streams [9]. Selective ion
exchange considerably increases the ion exchange capacity due
to the fact that the active sites are filled only by specific (not
selected) metal ions without unnecessary ballast. The additional
advantages of ion exchange include the possibility of recovering
valuable metal ions, low amounts of sludge formation and the ability
to reach the limit for discharge, small footprint and low installation
costs or the concentration factor larger than 200 [10]. For
example by using sulfuric acid as regenerating solution copper