Recovery of copper ions from wastewater
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Our plant has two water streams; one with a capacity of 300 t/d and containing 125 mg/L of copper ions. A flow rate of 20 t/d of water, containing 3200 mg/L of copper ions. Is there any value in recycling it this way? What method is used for recycling? Thank you! We also need everyone to contribute their ideas.
There must be some value in recycling it. Besides, there are requirements regarding environmental protection. There are many ways to recover copper ions. 1. For a simple copper salt aqueous solution, it is possible to concentrate the first stream 100 times and the second stream 10 times using a nanofiltration membrane process without any problems. 2. If the wastewater does not contain chelating agents such as ammonia or cyanide ions (CN-), nor chelators like EDTA, simply raising the pH to 6.5 using sodium hydroxide will cause copper hydroxide to precipitate completely. Then it can meet the standards. 3. Some other conventional environmental protection treatments. 4. If the wastewater contains both copper ions and ammonia, it becomes more complicated. Recently, we have carried out some work on ensuring that such wastewater meets the required standards.
Are there any complexes in which the first stream is concentrated tenfold and then mixed with the second stream, after which copper is recovered through reverse electroplating?
Hello, enrichment can be achieved through resin adsorption. I was wondering what the pH level of your water is? ? We have handled copper recycling for many companies, and we hope to discuss this with you.
300T/D definitely has value for recycling; I wonder what raw materials your factory uses? ? ?
The first batch of water has little value for recycling, while the second batch has greater recycling value.
The last edit to this post was made by chen3316407 on 2015-8-13 at 17:35. First, please explain what type of process generates your wastewater, what system it comes from, what components it contains, and whether there are any complexing ions, etc. Based on the information you provide, it will likely be impossible to give you any suggestions or technical analysis
The pH value of the wastewater? With such high levels of copper ions, there must be value in recycling them. Membrane methods and resin exchange techniques are viable; however, the investment and operating costs are high under large flow rates ； The precipitation method using alkali hydroxide is difficult to meet the standards ； Sulfidation precipitation can meet the regulatory requirements; the precipitated sludge is also easy to recycle, resulting in the lowest investment and operating costs.
You only mentioned copper ions; there must be other ions as well, as copper ions alone do not exist. The components should be understood and addressed comprehensively.
Our wastewater is the complexing wastewater from a printed circuit board factory; the concentration of copper ions in it is 500 mg/L, and the volume of wastewater generated is 30 tons per day. There are many factories in the vicinity, and if there is value in recycling this wastewater, we can carry out the recycling process together. In that case, the amount of water will be very large. The wastewater contains complexes of copper and ammonia, and a complex-breaking system has now been installed at the plant. Do you have the technology to recover copper from complexed wastewater?
What compounds form complexes with copper ions? Cyanides, ammonia, or something else? This is important.